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Climate change: Ten worst things that climate change will soon bring to our world

Climate change: Ten worst things that climate change will soon bring to our world

Global nightmare: What happens if humanity doesn’t take real action against climate change

Editor’s note: Marshall Brain – futurist, inventor, NCSU professor, writer and creator of “How Stuff Works” is a contributor to WRAL TechWire.  Brain offers a serious but also humorous look at the world of possibilities for Earth, and the human race.  He’s also author of “The Doomsday Book: The Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Threats.” This is the first of a two-story examination of the global threat of climate change – what could happen and solutions.

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RALEIGH – The full-scale Climate Catastrophe has arrived. The early effects are becoming more prominent in the news.

The frightening thing about Climate Change, is that the early effects are small compared to the future. Our future is in jeopardy if humanity continues to ignore the Climate Change threat.

How bad can things get? How dangerous can Climate Change be? What kind of catastrophes could be possible when our climate reaches its tipping point, and the planet starts to degrade all around us? Let’s look at the Top 10 most terrifying things that we will be seeing soon in the world around us…

#10 Severe Heat Events

Check out the headlines regarding the heatwave currently underway in India. It’s a record-breaking catastrophe of heat, with temperatures going as high as 120 degrees F. Or think back to last summer, June of 2021, when a gigantic heat dome was sitting over western North America. Canada saw temperatures rise to 120 degrees F, while the Western U.S. was baked. 1,000+ people died. Crops failed. Then there were wildfires. We’ll see why in a moment.

Photo courtesy Marshall Brain

Why are these heatwaves increasing in frequency and severity? It’s easy to understand. The human race emits around 35 gigatons each year of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. What does this mean for you? Personally, a gasoline-powered car in the United States adds three to four tons of carbon dioxide each year. Megatons of carbon dioxide are added annually to a city’s power plant that is either coal- or natural-gas-fueled. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere mean more global warming, which eventually leads to heatwaves that kill tens of thousands of people.

#9 Increasing Wildfires

If you dry a forest in the heatwave, it will dry out. A dry forest, especially when there is wind, is a bonfire waiting. As a result, wildfires are getting more frequent and larger. For example, California’s Dixie fire burned almost a million acres in 2021. In 2020, Australia saw 46 million acres of forest burn and an estimated 3billion animals die. Russia lost 45 million acres of forest in 2021.

#8 Rainforest Collapse

What would be the worst wildfire possible? The Amazon Rainforest covers more that a billion acres. The consequences for the planet will be terrible if it burns to ground. But how can a rainforest be burned? Doesn’t all the rain put out the fires?

There are three problems. First, the rainforest has a naturally wetter season (November through June) and an drier season [July through October]. The drier season is getting longer. Second, during the drier seasons, farmers who want to convert the rainforest into farm fields set the forest ablaze. In 2019, there were more than 100,000 fires. In a symbiotic relationship, trees also pump moisture into the atmosphere to make it rain. The less rain that falls, the more trees that farmers have to burn. The entire rainforest will be destroyed or rotted, adding hundreds of gigatons carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and killing billions of animals. This is known as rainforest collapse.

The only positive thing about the 2019 rainforest fires was that they were noticed by average people for a few weeks. This may have been the first time a Climate Change event has attracted international attention. People were shocked. Unfortunately, the attention lasted only a few weeks and the fires continued. See This articleFor a description of the chain reaction which could occur due to rainforest collapse, click here

#7 Sea Level Rise

Would humanity want to lose trillions of dollars in infrastructure when sea levels rise by 10 feet, destroying many of Earth’s major coastal cities and beaches? No. But inaction may allow humanity to witness this event earlier than expected.

We don’t know the exact timing, but we could see this catastrophe unfold within 10 years. In 2022, the collapsed of Antarctica’s first major glacier was witnessed by humanity. One reason was a heatwave in Antarctica. (See #10) This collapse caused the loss of about 300,000 acres worth of ice. The Thwaites glacier is held in place in Western Antarctica by an ice shelf. It could cause sea levels to rise by 10 feet if its ice shelf falls. See This articleFor a description of the possible outcomes of this colossal disaster, click here

#6 Mass extinctions

In the course of natural events, animals sometimes die. Scientists can track this rate, which is called the background extinction (in the absence human activities). But humans do many things that cause animals to go extinct faster than normal. It can be as high as 100X faster. There are many things that can be done to make animals go extinct faster than normal, such as increased wildfires (#9) and habitat destruction (#8). Soon, humans will have caused the extinctions of 1% and 2% of the species.

A mass extinction event is when 75% or greater of all species on Earth become extinct as a result of an event. The fifth mass extinction event was the 65 million year old asteroid impact that decimated the dinosaurs. It is widely believed humanity will cause the sixth mass extermination event unless it changes its course quickly.

#5 Severe Drought

Drought is a side effect of global warming (#10). The West is currently experiencing a 20-year drought. This is threatening to cause serious problems for both farmers and cities. See This article contains more details. Large areas of Africa, especially the Horn of Africa, which includes Ethiopia, Kenya Somalia, Somalia and Eritrea, are currently experiencing drought that has affected tens of thousands of people. Drought can lead to less water for drinking and less water for crops, which can cause starvation in poorer countries.

#4 Severe flooding

Climate Change can lead to both drought and flooding, paradoxically. The floods happen when weather events like “atmospheric rivers” bring intense, drenching rain to an area. These floods are a completely new phenomenon that is not normally seen in a particular area. One great example is the 2021 giant flood in Germany. As seen in, one area received six inches of rainfall in a single day. This video.

Similar events are taking place all over the globe.

#3 Typhoons & Huge Hurricanes

Earth has seen typhoons and hurricanes throughout history. Climate Change is increasing their intensity. As the oceans heat, they provide more energy to hurricanes, increasing wind speed and rainfall. These super hurricanes will cause more damage, especially when they strike major coastal cities. This video Let’s see what the consequences of a hurricane can do to your home.

#2 Crop failures

Climate Change can lead to heatwaves and droughts (#10), which can lead to crops failing. A partial failure in India’s wheat crop is happening this year because of India’s heatwave. The wheat seeds were still forming on the plants when India’s heatwave hit, so the seeds shriveled rather than fully forming. This videoThis will help you understand the situation.  Canada’s heatwave last year caused severe damage to both the wheat and hay crops. Over the winter, hay prices quadrupled, and some animals died from starvation. Crop failures will increase due to heatwaves, droughts and floods as well as hurricanes and derechos. As sea levels rise and saltwater intrusions increase, so will crop failures.

#1 Climate Refugees

If we add increasing heatwaves + drought + sea level rise + crop failures together, what we get is large groups of people – millions and millions of people – who can no longer live where they have been living.

  • All residents of a coastal city need to evacuate if they are flooded or damaged by a hurricane.
  • Millions of people will have to leave the Southwest if there is a drought that continues, like the one in the west.
  • If Earth’s equatorial region gets so hot that it becomes uninhabitable, tens of millions of people will have to move somewhere else.
  • All of them are climate refugees.

As climate refugees continue to increase, so will tension, riots and stampedes as well as the risk of wars. Already border security debates are roiling US politics. This video explains it all. In March 2022, more than 200,000 people flooded the United States from the south. Imagine what happens when the flow increases 10 times in a Climate Crisis.

Conclusion

Climate Change is causing these events today and will continue to increase as the planet warms. As we have seen:

  • As we speak, new and more extreme heatwaves are occurring.
  • Right now, crop failures due to heatwaves are common.
  • Droughts are on the rise and could soon make large areas of the American Southwest and Africa inhospitable.
  • Sea levels are increasing incrementally each year, no matter what. And we may soon reach a tipping point Antarctica, where sea levels rise dramatically.
  • And so on…

Before we actually hit the tipping points and before we actually see the worst effects of Climate Change emerge, wouldn’t it make sense for humanity to take significant, dramatic action against Climate Change? Wouldn’t it make sense to save the human species and planet Earth from ecosystem destruction? Please seeThis article for a proposed solution to Climate Change that could start today.

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