It's too late, We Are Doomed
Don’t get startled by the title … yet. On Environment day, we all see many ideas and plans coming up to save our earth, Competitions, awareness, events like planting trees, etc. But the impact of these on the world is not adequate otherwise this title would never come up. Don’t believe me, see for yourself.
In 2020, The whole world was forced into lockdown by the attack of SARS-CoV-2(Covid-19). During those days the news was full of good news. Nature blooming everywhere, Things are getting back to normal, etc, and those words were true, mother earth was really blooming as the wrath of humans was temporarily suspended but was it enough?
An article in the science genre of the BBC, headline got my attention, ‘2019: The year the World Woke Up?’. As a matter of fact, 2019 was the year when social media got more aware of the climatic issues that we were facing due to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Her speech sailed all over the world impacting thousands of youth. Lots of protests were conducted everywhere which at least resulted in the awareness of this destined doom. The same year also witnessed former US President Donald Trump backing out of the Paris Agreement. The amazon forest fires have also grabbed a special spot in newspapers among other forest fires throughout 2019 as Amazon is considered the Lungs of the Earth. Let's go to outer space for some time.
Venus(Earth’s sister) is the hottest planet in the solar system. Also is the nearest planet to us. Around 42 missions have been sent to study our twin, yet we don’t have much info as we have about Mars or Moon. It is due to the thick atmosphere of Venus. The only set of images available from the surface venus was taken by Russian spacecraft Venera-13. The heat and the thick atmosphere(94 times that of the earth) on Venus are enormous that electronic instruments meltdown within hours.
In 2016 a climatic model on Venus was done by scientists of NASA, they discovered that around 4 billion years ago when life sprouted on the earth, Venus was a planet like ours with water surrounding the landmass. Interesting isn’t it! During the formation of planets, Venus was in the Gold Lock Zone or the Habitable Zone. So, the situation on venus resembles today’s earth(in temperature).
As years passed the gold lock zone shifted towards the Earth and the temperature on Venus increased. As this progresses, humidity in Venus’s atmosphere increases which results in the trapping of more heat. This further led to the melting of icecaps and water content on and below the surface. The lubricant for the tectonic plates vanishes, deposits on the mantle rise, followed by volcanic eruptions, which ultimately result in an alarmingly high concentration of sulfur dioxide and carbon deposits in the atmosphere. As the pressure and temperature increased, Water split into hydrogen and oxygen, oxygen reacted with sulfur to form sulphuric acid and carbon dioxide, and other compounds. Ultimately, resulting in the present Venus we know of.
This could happen to Earth too. If the privilege is taken away then this is the result. But what happens now is we are causing the same due to our actions. To make it simple, Everything is favorable for us to live except our attitude towards it.
Carbon emissions have significantly increased in the last decade which has resulted in global warming. This led to the increase in sea level due to the melting of polar ice caps. Currently, all around the world climate change has caused severe damage and casualties.
In Antarctica, the ice cover is almost 3–4 km in depth. Before Antarctica became like it is today, there might have been many living organisms present on the continent and as the ice melts there is a chance that those organisms could be fatal to the world like the coronavirus. How’s that possible right! It has been thousands of years of dormancy, they will be dead but that's not completely true. Russian scientists have revived Bdelloid rotifers or wheel animals that have been frozen in the arctic for 24,000 years! They just came back to life and started to reproduce asexually. So, it's quite possible.
Scientists have also found a lake under the ice in Antarctica, it flows like a lake due to the heat from the interior of the earth. Recently NASA has released an image of the world’s largest floating iceberg(A-76) taken from the ISS. It had detached from the antarctic. This is a clear sign of what’s coming in the near future. In December 2019, Discovery Channel telecasted a show called ‘India 2050’.In those videos, they clearly explained the outcomes of our cruelty towards nature. By 2050, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, etc will be flooded. New York, Shanghai, etc are also some of the major cities which will be flooded in near future. You can go to the playlist here.
The archipelago islands like Maldives, Lakshadweep, and all others are under constant threat. The former Maldives vice president Mohammed Waheed Hassan said “We are one of the most vulnerable countries on Earth and therefore need to adapt” in a report to the world bank in 2010. They are building walls to prevent from sinking and are also building artificial islands. Lakshadweep consists of only 35 islands, the 36th island Parali has been eroded and is now underwater. 4 more islands are also under threat.
This is not something that happens suddenly, but if we stay careless, we will see our Earth transforming into Venus. The increase in humidity due to global warming will result in higher temperatures, leading to drought in many areas. The countries like USA, Russia lie in the optimum temperature region and hence will not be receiving adverse effects any time soon. The abundant resource in the Siberian region will make Russia more resourceful during these times but the rest of the world will be in chaos due to the climate.
World Environment Day has passed by, many people planted trees as usual and left to die too in the same spirit. The leaders of the nations have immense responsibilities to tackle this, they need to understand that climate change is not a myth but the truth that we are facing. Do whatever you can to build up nature and to reduce overexploitation. Everyone Knows the ways but none practice it. If we turn our faces away now then soon our faces will be covered.
