The six degrees unto death

Global Warming- not a new phrase right?

While our world leaders are politicizing it and scientists are shouting 'crisis', and we honorable earthizens are sitting silent digging our own grave. We are a simple bunch of uneducated folk - who simply do not make any attempts to learn and explore. Its human nature to be so. But the situation is grim and time is fast running out. We have to wake up and rise.

"There should have been panic on the streets," says Mark Lynas in his book, Six Degrees, "people shouting from the rooftops, statements to parliament and 24-hour news coverage." . It's a very serious problem we are dealing with.

In an article titled"Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feed-backs in a coupled climate model", published in November 2000 in the scientific journal Nature - the UK Met Office’s Hadley Center for Climate Change, rings the loudest possible alarm bells. In layman's language, Hadley simply expresses its helplessness, while calling for an immediate response to this problem . According to this report, nature itself would become increasingly uncomfortable and would turn violent. There would be unpredictable changes in the weather patterns, which at first would be less violent and the latter would even turn fatal. Acute shortage of food and quality drinking water would plague the world and man would be forced to even turn to cannibalism! It would be an absolutely lawless world, filled with misery and grief, until nature finally pulls the plug.

It's human tendency to accept and understand only the facts that please us. Global warming sadly is one of those unpleasant facts. Mark Lynas states "The end of the world is nigh, and it's already been published in Nature."  Therefore it is essential for us to first understand the implications of our actions, effects of climate change and then try and implement a few proven solutions. As step one towards our learning process, let us understand the gradual changes that are going to happen around us, as global temperatures rise .

1c Increase - Ice free Sea absorbs more heat and accelerates global warming; fresh water lost from a third of the world's surface; low-lying coastlines flooded.

2c Increase - Europeans dying of heatstroke; forests ravaged by fire; stressed plants beginning to emit carbon rather than absorbing it; a third of all species face extinction.

3c Increase - Carbon release from vegetation and soils speeds global warming; death of the Amazon rain forest; super-hurricanes hit coastal cities; starvation in Africa.

4c Increase - Runaway thaw of permafrost makes global warming unstoppable; much of Britain made uninhabitable by severe flooding; Mediterranean region abandoned.

5c Increase - Methane from ocean floor accelerates global warming; ice gone from both poles; humans migrate in search of food and try vainly to live like animals off the land.

6c Increase - Life on Earth ends with apocalyptic storms, flash floods, hydrogen sulfide gas and methane fireballs racing across the globe with the power of atomic bombs; only fungi survive.

I assume this brief prediction sums it all. It’s a selfish world we live in, filled with ignorant and stubborn people. On an international level a lot of tantrums are thrown by world leaders about the steps that they would take (at a time of their convenience) and how through these steps they would be saviors of mankind. But the reality is – any government that tries to push towards policy reforms concerning climate change is isolated internationally. The best example is that of Ecuador – which recently gave up its vows to prevent drilling in the pristine Yasuni National Park. 

You may now wonder – why don’t the world leaders act? And why aren't the big business houses that control these world leaders pushing them to act?

The answer is extremely simple. Two per cent of the world’s population (comprising of these business and world leaders who in-turn control 98% of the wealth), have already invested in technology that would probably transport them to another planet, where they would live safely. What about the rest? Oh yes, we are the fools living in this selfish world.

It’s high time we open up our eyes and understand the truth. Let us all join hands and fight to secure a future for our children.

(For a more in-depth analysis of how the world leaders are out to destroy us and what can be done to save ourselves, please read my book Shall we save the Earth?)