Climate Change: The Veiled Predator! | Luv Kolkata

Climate Change: Its Real!

by Ananya Shukla

If you’re reading this around the same time I’ve written this, you’re probably scorching because of the unbearable heat outside, that is penetrating every nook and cranny of our house. It is torturous to even sit in a non-AC room for more than 5 minutes. Needless to say, 2020 has proven to be a dreadful year for our race. The chips have been down for months now. This year is nothing like anything seen before. It has been hard for everyone to wrap their heads around the unfortunate deaths, failing economy and businesses, shortage in resources, the list goes on. Somewhere in our hearts, we constantly hope for a miracle to disguise itself in the form of a cure against this man-slaying virus.

All doctors, every scientist and the majority of the population is working their fingers to the bone to put an end to this seemingly invincible virus. Measures like lockdowns, shutting down of institutions, etc have been taken by the government to flatten the curve as much as possible. We are trying to ensure that our race stays protected and that life continues. But are we really securing ourselves when the most precarious and threatening terminator, one that is different from this virus, is out in the open? It silently keeps growing in size. Many of us are still in denial of its existence and the situation thus keeps getting worse day by day. This terminator is none other than climate change.

Old Problem

Let’s take a walk in history. For the longest time, people believed that the consequences of their actions were only impactful to their locality. New blood came into this thought process when a scientist in 1896 pointed out otherwise. He explained how certain human activities might lead to the destruction of earth and everything that existed in it. Several scientists put their careers and reputation in peril to prove that human activities were adversely affecting the earth. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the population and governments were worried about the significant rise in temperature. They finally started to pay heed to climate change.

After much research and many experiments, climate change was officially accepted and the earth summit in 1992 is a testament to the same. It has been almost 70 years since the theory of climate change made it to the front-pages and more than 30 years since it has been officially accepted. So why haven’t people been as serious about climate change as they have been about Covid-19?

Must Ask Questions!

Well, for starters, what is climate change? What is the climate change definition? What is climate change meaning? And, what are the causes of climate change? What are the effects of climate change? We also need to ask what causes climate change and is yet not being addressed?

The concrete roads which are built on the roots of dead trees, constructed on the shattered homes of our fellow creatures, are pathways to our own nemesis in reality. The greenhouse gases gushing out of every square inch of the earth have resulted in a rise of 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the global temperature in the past century.

These are the climate change causes. It’s rightly called global warming. It is a global climate change in the true sense of the words. It is hard to take such a small number seriously, especially when the appliances present in almost all homes can bring about such a change.

Whether we take it seriously or not, the rise in temperature is having catastrophic ramifications on our planet that has harboured life for as long as one can remember.

2019 was the second warmest year on record and 2020 has easily made it to the top 5.

This ‘minute’ change in temperature has caused ice sheets and glaciers to melt at a rapid rate. So much so that the Arctic is anticipated to transform into a substantially ice-free zone by mid-century. With the loss in ice, we can also expect a steep decline in the number of polar bears, walruses, Arctic foxes, etc. These are some of the crucial climate change effects.

The refrigerators of our world- Arctic and Antarctica are melting at a rapid rate and wildlife is not only the thing prone to danger. Being the refrigerators, they reflect a huge chunk of heat into space. But with their disappearance in sight, earth will not be able to balance its temperature. It will transform into a blistering bowl of hot soup. It does not end here. Jakarta – a dream destination for many, is the capital of Indonesia with a huge population. Diverse culture, astounding natural beauty, and glistening art and architecture. But now, it is nothing more than a sinking fantasy. Another climate change effects. Water from melting ice flows into the oceans of the world, ensuing in rising sea levels.

The average global sea level has risen by 7cm since 1900 which has resulted in places like Jakarta and Mumbai sinking at a gradual rate. A 1 cm rise in sea level is believed to displace 1 million people from their homes. Greenland, which is melting at an accelerating rate, could potentially increase the sea levels by 20 feet! I suspect it to not be hard to imagine the fiasco in the foreseeable future. We are standing on thin ice. This is true global warming and climate change.

Nonetheless, global warming does not mean ALL water.

Several factors like a rise in population, reckless usage and wastage of water, pollution of water, and climate change have resulted in water scarcity, of all things!

With the rise in the number of cases of suicides amongst farmers, we all are well aware of the fact that there has been a change in the weather patterns in the past years. Some years, people are found begging for mercy and hoping for it to rain, other years, it precipitates so heavily that it could flood. Such uncertainty has resulted in deep job insecurity in farmers of the world and food insecurity in the population of the world. To escape the fear of starving to death, people emigrate to other countries, generating a refugee crisis.

A distressing report on climate change states that by 2050 nearly 5 million people will be living in water-scarce areas. Another research reveals that 1 in 5 developing nations are most likely to be water insecure by 2050, causing scientists to be equally horrified. This is horrific climate change news. Droughts, heatwaves, cyclones, tornadoes, floods, and other extreme weather episodes have been on the rise lately. They are expected to keep on spiralling with climate change and human activities being the fundamental cause.

200 villages experienced both drought and flood in a single year.

The aforementioned has created intense agony in the people due to its now unpredictable nature.

CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL AND WE ARE IN A CLIMATE EMERGENCY. The fact that scientists speculate that we have lost dozens of plant and animal species to extinction because of it, is evidence of what I’ve expressed above. The fact that 250,000 people might lose their lives because of climate change proves that we are over-exploiting our planet. We are taking more than what this planet has to offer to us at a given point in time. 

Everything one can think of that can be deemed as salient to life, ranging from love and friendship to water and food, prevails in this environment, on this very planet. Everything we value and protect will vanish into thin air if our environment ceases to exist. We need to take climate change and global warming seriously. We need to ask ourselves how to stop climate change? Our world leaders need to ask themselves how to prevent climate change? There’s only so far we can go by exploiting our home in order to build an economically sound society.

Oblivious to the fact that we will end up paying a much bigger price, we continue to torpedo anything and everything that comes in the way of us. A flourishing society we aspire for, forgetting that what we’re destroying is the floor we are walking on. We are overlooking every sign which indicates that we are gambling with death. We are building castles on sand. Nothing but castles on sand.

One must wake up before it’s too late.

Note by the editor: The above is an essay on climate change, but actually, it is a heartfelt appeal by a young girl called Ananya Shukla. She wishes to stay on a planet that will remain healthy for her and her future generation. Is it too much to ask? Let’s pause for a moment and think, decide and do something about it, in whatever capacity we can.

Also read: What does a young girl think of her life

Suggested Reading: What is takes to be mentally strong

Sharing is caring! If you liked what you read, please take a moment to write a few words of encouragement in the comments section below. Also, please share the article with your friends and family so they can also enjoy it.