The Last Grains of Sand: Acknowledging Climate Change in Earth’s Final Hours
As the natural world approaches the brink, mankind must act in the interest of future generations and Earth’s dwindling wildlife
Imagine sitting in front of a large oven. You’ve been told that ovens grow hot and that you will perish if you’re inside. Disbelieving this fact, or understanding and disregarding it, you climb inside and turn the dial. You sit there as things slowly begin to warm up. It would seem, as you were told, that death is a certainty. But you’re not worried. You’ll reach natural death before the oven grows hot enough to burn.
Now imagine carrying your children into the oven with you, and the household cat and dog. Imagine the fatal heat that awaits them after you’ve died comfortably of old age.
Climate change is the leading concern of Earth’s future generations, and yet those who currently hold the reins to steer mankind away from certain disaster are purposely carrying us all into the pyre. Decades of industrial negligence and human gluttony have desecrated nature to the point of collapse, and like all bad habits, they are too ingrained in our worldwide societies to easily curb in time to avoid catastrophe.
Fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are the primary agents of this environmental decline, causing more and more solar energy to be trapped in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the usual gas blamed for this heat imbalance, which is fitting given that there exists more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere today than any time in the past three million years. Other gases, such as methane and water vapor, pose similar threats as emission levels continue to rise. The science behind the cooking of our planet is crystalline, but for all of the damage that greenhouse gases cause, they are merely the consequence of irresponsible environmental policies that the governments of the world continue to permit. Politicians in command of energy infrastructure too often seem swayed to work against environmentally-sound alternatives, and while some beneficial policies have clawed their way into practice, they have not been impactful enough to make much difference at all.
It is most unfortunate that, as this crucial mending period approaches its terminus, the United States has leaders determined to hasten our plight. Donald Trump has stacked the deck against scientists and intelligence agencies fighting to course-correct his administration’s policies, actively barring them from testifying to Congress about the severity of man-made climate change. Suppression of information from the public and legislative bodies is a tune that Trump and his cadre play at every opportunity, and the first note began less than one month after his inauguration. He appointed Scott Pruitt, prominent foe of fossil fuel regulation, as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump’s EPA is a travesty dedicated to undermining its own core mission, with Pruitt as its straw man, or as conservation groups dubbed him, “a fox guarding the henhouse.” EPA employees urged senators, in vain, not to confirm Pruitt as their new captain and continued to campaign against him after he was handed his title, and it’s easy to see why. The EPA has deliberately, and illegally, allowed fossil fuel emissions to go unchecked at every available occasion, only shuffling to fulfill its obligations to regulate them when forced. Pruitt finally resigned amid scandal in mid-2018, but even this was only a temporary reprieve from the sabotage. Just recently the EPA announced that Obama-era carbon emission standards were being thrown out the window in an effort to please Trump’s coal industry bedfellows. The deluge of climate vices pouring forth from the Trump administration seems endless, with worldwide corrosion stemming from a cluster of corrupt individuals who lie about it with impunity.
The results of these blind eye policies are already evident. Last year the U.S. Global Change Research Program released a National Climate Assessment describing the doom that awaits the American economy in our climate-ravaged future. It warns that the U.S. could lose hundreds of billions, or roughly 10% of its GDP, by the end of the century due to climate change caused by human activities. Southeastern states may lose a half billion labor hours by 2100 thanks to extreme temperature increases, Midwestern farmers will see significant decreases in their crop yields, and coastal fisherman will see their livelihoods disintegrate due to ocean acidification.
Extreme heat will also cause thousands of premature deaths each year by 2090, with some researchers calling an annual count of 250,000 fatalities a conservative estimate. Foodborne and waterborne illness will become more prevalent, as will allergies and asthma. California will see wildfire damage increase exponentially by 2050. Rising sea levels will cause more damage to U.S. coastal infrastructure and cooler regions will begin to resemble deserts. No American’s life will remain unchanged by this creeping calamity.
At 72 years of age, Donald Trump certainly won’t live long enough to suffer the consequences of his White House’s environmental decisions. Nor does he even care to acknowledge the realities of climate change, regularly calling global warming a hoax. But those in power who discredit climate change science don’t do so out of ignorance; there is already ample proof from present day and ages past that verify this threat.
History tells us what drastic climate change can do to humanity. Primitive man had to weather rising global temperatures over 114,000 years ago during the last interglacial period, and it forced the Neanderthals to turn to cannibalism. Their Eurasian ecosystem endured considerable change in the growing heat, which caused a decline in the plants and animals that Neanderthals relied on for food. With their natural resources diminished, they had no choice but to begin eating their own, as evidenced by the chew marks and cuts from stone tools found on their bones by archaeologists.
The climate change that the Neanderthals faced was a natural occurrence, unlike today’s looming crisis. And while cannibalism seems an unlikely fate for modern societies, other severe side effects are developing in surprising ways. Extremism is on the rise in certain parts of the world due to global warming’s effect on their harvests. Regions in Africa and the Middle East are subject to crippling drought, floods, and wildfires, making their inhabitants more likely to join extremist causes in exchange for food and water. Since increased temperatures and reduced rainfall are shrinking crop and livestock sustainability, pastoral populations have little choice but to turn to desperate and often violent solutions. Hunger and poverty create easy targets for radical hate groups like ISIS and Boko Haram to prey upon and swell their ranks. Water and food scarcity also triggers mass migration, which leads to civil unrest and overpopulation.
The impact of man-made climate change on human lives is clearly overwhelming, yet it pales in comparison to the havoc it inflicts on flora and fauna. The United Nations recently released a comprehensive report about climate change’s assault on Earth’s biodiversity and found that, of the nearly 8 million plant and animal species on Earth, up to 1 million species are at risk of extinction, many within the next few decades. More than 40% of amphibians, up to one third of marine mammals, and nearly 33% of coral reefs will be lost. The unprecedented rate that these species are wilting under rising global temperatures and continued habitat contamination is tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been in the last 10 million years. Consequently, if conservation and environmental preservation efforts do not drastically increase, it could take certain mammalian species up to 7 million years to recover their numbers, if at all.
The UN assessment also determined that three quarters of Earth’s land environments and 66% of marine ecosystems have been significantly altered by mankind, often motivated by crop production and resource consumption. The human population has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. We continue to destroy habitats while we consume more and more, and this consumption triggers the other key contributor to the loss of biodiversity — climate change. At the current worldwide estimate of 7.6 billion people, these trends are woefully unsustainable.
Examples of nature’s devastation due to climbing heat can be found in any direction you turn. Tens of thousands of mussels have been cooked alive by heat waves along the Northern California shoreline. There have been increased sightings of polar bears entering buildings and clashing with residents of remote villages along Russia’s Arctic coast. The bears, unable to hunt as widespread at sea due to shrinking sea ice habitats, have been driven into human settlements to search for food.
Ice is rapidly melting elsewhere in the world as well. An iceberg in Antarctica measuring 1,700 square kilometers — twice the size of New York City — will soon break off from the Brunt Ice Shelf along the continent’s northern coast. In another hemisphere, Greenland’s ice sheet has melted so dramatically that nearly 40% of the country has experienced flooding; last month 2 billion tons of ice melted in one day alone.
On land, ecosystems aren’t faring much better. Spiking global temperatures are set to obliterate life in some of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, including the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos Islands, and the Miombo Woodlands in Africa. Elephants, marine turtles, and African wild dogs are just some of the notable species that will find their habitats unlivable if the heat continues to rise.
In Australia, the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area is enduring grave temperature surges, and as the oldest rainforest in the world — 80 million years older than the Amazon — it is home to some of the most sacred and ancient forms of life on the planet. These species are now at imminent risk of extinction due to man-made climate change, with many rainforest species already experiencing declines in population. Some rare marsupial species are at risk of vanishing as soon as 2022. One in particular, the lemuroid ringtail possum, is unable to survive a single day in temperatures higher than 29 degrees Celsius, yet the region saw temperatures as high as 39 degrees Celsius six times this past summer.
Spectacled flying foxes have also suffered heavy losses in rolling heat waves. Locals recall seeing droves of the bats toppling from tree branches in 42 degree Celsius weather, with the final tally approaching 23,000 dead, nearly one third of Australia’s population, over the course of two days. 10,000 black flying foxes also died in those 48 hours and other heat waves have had similar results, such as the one that caused over 2,000 grey-headed flying foxes to succumb in a single day.
Even Earth’s giants cannot withstand rising temperatures. Despite living for thousands of years, Africa’s ancient baobab trees are now dying. Of the 13 oldest baobabs found in Southern Africa, nine have died in the past 12 years. The same is true of five of the six largest baobabs. Trees this old have certainly faced severe conditions throughout their enormous lifespans, but researchers believe that this region of Africa is experiencing some of the most rapid warming on the planet. The baobabs simply cannot withstand such immense heat and drought continuously.
Temperature undoubtedly has a hand in the demise of so many species, but others are vanishing as their ecosystems do. Species that are highly specialized in diet and habitat are hit the hardest, unable to cope with drastic and sudden climate change as the environments they evolved to suit are steadily torched. Like polar bears and their sea ice, Bengal tigers rely heavily on specialized habitats like the Sundarbans. This massive mangrove forest provides refuge to the few remaining tigers in the wild, yet rising sea levels are shrinking the available land and fresh water that the tigers need to survive in the mangroves. Global warming, combined with continued poaching, may cause the Bengal tiger to disappear entirely from the Sundarbans within the next 50 years.
The list of casualties seems perpetual. Man-made climate change promises negative consequences for all life on Earth, human and wildlife. For too long we’ve held a pick in one hand, mining more of nature without regard, and in the other we’ve held a scythe over our own heads. Continuing on this toxic path will assure the loss of significant amounts of biodiversity, harming not only the health of the ecosystems we rely on but dramatically impacting our economies, our diets and agriculture, and our own survivability going forward. With roughly one decade to decide the fate of the planet, hope increasingly seems dim.
Only immediate and unanimous change in the way we harvest energy and cultivate land and livestock is going to give life a chance to continue on Earth. This means that those in charge of national policies who are currently failing to fulfill these duties must be cast out at the soonest opportunity, and the public must never allow their ilk to sit at the head of the table again. They must be replaced with leaders that prioritize the welfare of our planet’s future, and thus our own. Currently, America’s notable administrators have no qualms about misleading people from the staggering reality, and when they aren’t telling flagrant lies they do backflips to dodge direct climate questions. Conservative groups increasingly reject climate science to support those that hold their leashes, and this same behavior is seen overseas with corrupt politicians claiming they have a right to mislead the public.
But while their lies are numerous, they are not convincing. Across the world angry voices are calling for their governments to address man-made climate change and enforce environmental safeguards. It began in 2015 when the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted by nearly every country in the world. Its collective goal is to keep this century’s global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging technological and financial solutions that trend green. It’s the first united effort by the nations of the world to curb pollution in the interest of future generations.
President Barack Obama readily committed the United States to the Paris Agreement, a commitment that Donald Trump wished to sever soon after taking office. Luckily, the U.S. is bound by international law to remain a part of the accord until at least November 2020, right around the same time as the next presidential election. The U.S. and China are the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the world, making America’s inclusion in the accord essential to meeting target temperature regulations. Half of U.S. states remain dedicated to the Paris Agreement in defiance of Trump’s decision, bypassing Washington D.C. to show the world that not all Americans are indifferent to our shared peril.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that most countries in the Paris Agreement are failing to meet emission goals, and hope of making significant change by the 2030 deadline is crumbling. To help ignite change in U.S. legislation, some members of Congress have advocated for the Green New Deal, a progressive proposal to eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by ending our reliance on fossil fuels like coal and oil. Though lacking in concrete details, its goal is to spur reform and transition the economy toward clean energy production and infrastructure. The Green New Deal aims to reduce carbon, ensure clean water and air, and create new job opportunities that would advance economic equity.
Despite the fervor behind the Green New Deal, it has failed to launch in the Republican-held Senate and does not receive support from many old guard Democrats. Criticism of the proposal’s specifics may be warranted, but the need for the Green New Deal or similar economic reform is glaring at this stage of planetary decline. Detractors cry foul over the estimated costs of clean energy mobilization, yet world governments spent over $5 trillion on the subsidization of fossil fuels, an industry that undeniably poisons our environment and our mental and physical health, as recently as 2017.
Many find it difficult to make a dent when pitted against such systems, rooted through decades and strengthened by corruption and belligerence. With time frighteningly short and legislators moving too slowly, if at all, concerned people across the world have taken their anger and despair and used it to incite a dialogue about climate change. Protests have been orchestrated in countries all over the globe, with countless environmental activists of all ages marching in the streets and causing disruptions in an effort to drive their demands for an unspoiled environment and a safer future into the deaf ears of their leaders. They have swamped landmarks and roadways, delayed public transportation, and both harangued and recruited politicians. Over 1,000 people have been arrested in London alone, unafraid of legal ramifications if it means raising awareness.
The amount of children and young adults taking part in these organized protests is especially noteworthy, as it is their generation that will endure the most suffering in the coming decades. Students around the world are walking out of schools and getting involved, unsatisfied with the inaction from their governments regarding the climate crisis they will inherit from their elders. In every state, in every country, on every continent, protests are increasing.
This heightened engagement is heartening, but if those in charge of policy do not listen and act with the same level of urgency, it will matter little. It falls on those with the foresight to change our ways to campaign loudly and forcefully; humanity has not historically shown a tendency to make great social change without strain. On an individual level, it can start as simply as changing your diet or reexamining daily routines to positively impact emission levels. On a national level, societies can emulate India’s triumph of planting 66 million trees in 12 hours.
Man-made climate change is the greatest threat before us, and as this is our collective fault, we can find solace in the fact that no one must face it alone. When people unite and muster their energy toward a clear and necessary purpose, wonders are possible. Even the animals that we regularly torment are able to pitch in toward this cause. Whales naturally absorb carbon in our oceans and elephants manage carbon levels in rainforests via grazing. Nature time and again demonstrates its willingness to change, and now mankind, as a part of nature, must make that same effort. This is only possible by removing those in our leadership who would stand in our way.
To willfully condemn ourselves to a disaster of our own making is a great enough crime, but to deliver a death sentence to so many plants and animals at the mercy of our endeavors is unforgivable. How nice it would be if humans preemptively addressed global issues and placed significance on more than wealth, but the present is what it is, and there is now no other choice but to cobble together as many scientific and economic solutions as we can in order to stave off famine and extinction.
We can save ourselves and our planet or remain the architects of our own demise, and unfortunately, that of every other living creature trapped on this planet with us. Time will tell which course we choose, and given how little time is left to act, we will all know soon enough what sort of future awaits us.