Climate Change and Climate Victims: Big Problems Ahead

Climate change- the thing that is being called the most recent and fatal threat to humanity in this century, and the horrific part is that it really possesses the power to wipe out humanity from the surface of this planet we call our home.

So, what’s the way out?

Well, before that we need to understand the thing and what it can cause and, we will try to get to its roots, so that we can be individual participants in uprooting this hazardous unwanted establishment.

What is it(Climate Change)?

In simple words, as the name suggests it is a change earth’s climate wholly. Now, it's very natural to ask- how will you know whether it is changing or going back to what is normal? Well, we have the technology to detect the possible normal average climate of a planet, just by knowing it's the distance from the nearest star, its gravitational acceleration, atmospheric content, the stage in the life of that planet, and some other truly crazy kinds of stuff. And being inhabitants of this planet we know all the parameters that decide our normal average climate, and by keeping that as standard it suddenly becomes very easy to determine whether it is changing or is just some sort of cycle thing.

And we know it more precisely because we are the ones causing it.

Now, don’t get me wrong as there would have been no climate change without humans. Climate change is a normal phenomenon in a longer window of time like the lifespan of a planet. It is indeed this climate change that caused the planet to cool down enough to condense the water vapor to water which is a prerequisite for the life we see today. 

So, one can fairly say that we are a harvest of climate change.

And, you may be shocked to know that it is not the first time the earth is facing this climate change thing (keeping apart the fact about the climate change along with the age of the planet). You may have heard of the Ice Ages, yeah obviously the real ones which took down those giant mammoths and not the Disney one. Those ice ages are a result of climate change.

And believe me, that ice age was not the first one, nor the last. Our planet does feel a periodic change in climate with a very low frequency.

So, considering the fact that

Data Source:: Wikipedia

climate change is very normal to a planet, like aging, we started calling the climate change we are talking about the “contemporary climate change”. And yes, this planet has never felt anything like this before. Yes, this climate change is special, because it is being featured by a species who call themselves Human.

What is so special about this species? Well, there are a lot of specialties in this species, one being their ability to exploit their surroundings and manipulate things to what they need. 

And after confronting the fact that this “contemporary” climate change is largely due to this ability of this species, it is being called “anthropogenic climate change”.

Why is it a problem?

Well, you may say that, what’s the problem, when it has happened all the time in the past of this planet.

Well, this contemporary or better anthropogenic climate change is also special in its characteristics itself. This time the change is happening faster than ever.

The global temperature on land is rising twice as fast as the global average. This increase is causing melting in polar permafrost, which if left unaffected, is very effective in reflecting sunlight, causing this planet to receive a greater dose of radiation, causing it to warm further, and causing a positive feedback loop to form, causing greater destruction of its type. The melted ice has a far higher number of consequences, rising sea levels being the easiest to understand. Other impacts include a higher frequency of increasingly powerful hurricane strikes, flooding, droughts, and similar destructions.

These are indeed being caused at this rate because of some natural gasses released by humans in the atmosphere at large or say “hugely large” amounts which is absolutely abnormal.

Data Source:: Wikipedia

These gasses include CO2, methane, and some oxides of nitrogen, which are collectively called the Greenhouse Gases, responsible for a very natural process called the Greenhouse Effect. In the Greenhouse Effect, heat is allowed to enter a closed container, but not to exit thus, exponentially heating up the space inside the container, more like the inside of a car parked in the sun. The difference here is that the whole earth is inside of the car, and we don't yet have that big AC to cool it.

Naturally, these gasses are absolutely necessary for sustaining life as we see it today on this blue planet because without these greenhouse gases earth’s temperature will be chilling -18 ℃.

But, that ability of greenhouse gasses is being overused causing that “inside-car effect”, but to the entire planet. And the effects are being observed ‘live’ with 2016 being the hottest year of the hottest decade of the human era. The current increase is around 1.2 ℃, but this is being estimated toward the worse, 1.5 ℃.

You may say, what’s that, only 1.2? But, believe me, it will be hotter than you think, and this temperature when combined with the increased humidity due to this temperature rise to project the Heat Index, will give the actual temperature you will feel and that will always be higher than your thermometer reading.

Adjusting your AC accordingly may give you temporary relief until you live on some low-lying coastline like Miami, New York, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Kolkata, Sydney, and numerous islands, villages, and communities near the sea across the globe. Because the melting ice will swallow those lands. The current rate of sea-level rise is some 3.4 mm per year, yeah, it seems very little, but you know what, it is happening, slowly but surely. And the worse part is when you realize that this is measured perpendicular to the sea level, and that means by the time it seems this small, the sea has engulfed more than thousands of hectares of land from the coastline across the world.

Till now from 1993, the sea has risen by some 101 mm. And the worse part is that this is increasing even faster with the current rate being 3.4 mm per year. 

But, as said earlier, with an increase in every single unit, the sea engulfs a lot of fertile/liveable land. And this thing at the end of the year forces coastline dwellers to back up from the seas abandoning the land which once served as their cropland or place to stay.

And in some cases, the sea corners the people, with no other option than to leave the place and go search for some new place to settle in, with virtually no livelihood to pursue.

Although this may seem insignificant today, that’s only because our governments do not yet publish any records or data on climate victims. But, the problem is real, I mean scary real.

I’m not going into the detailed sufferings of the climate victims, but you know, that’s happening, from human rights violations to citizenship dispute, migration, and everything. Climate victims do face all these by themselves, mostly without any aid from the government.

Source:: Danube Region Strategy

You can simply understand the urgency of the situation by the following estimate published in The Ecosystem Threat Register in September 2018 by the Institute for Economics and Peace, which pointed out that some 1.2 billion people could be displaced by this sea-level rise and allied threats.

So, yes it is a big problem because everybody is a potential victim to climate change or better anthropogenic climate change.

A potential solution to this problem

As all of these are happening due to what we do, overexploitation. We need to stop overexploiting nature, but at the same time, we can’t stop the development and downgrade civilization by a step. So, we end up negotiating with our ego, for the sake of life or at least humanity on this planet.

After realizing the seriousness of this issue over our existence, we started taking steps to find potential solutions to this problem. Since 1995, there have been 25 Conference of the Parties (COP), that includes governments from across the globe as members to observe and limit climate change with the help of technological, infrastructural measures, and other allied measures. In these conferences, global leaders from across the world pledge to accomplish certain goals by a given period of time, strategically and accumulatively, keeping an eye on the non-deterioration of development.

So far, these conferences have been proved successful enough to continue.

Alongside these, United Nations included “Climate Actions” among the Sustainable Development Goals, and aims to limit global warming below 2℃ above the pre-industrial levels. And the UN is also looking forward to reducing emissions by 45% over the next decade, and to net-zero by 2050 with concrete plans and blueprints. 

And in this respect, the UN Secretary-General projected 6 tasks to the governments across the globe to attain this goal, at an individual national level and accumulatively at the global level

1. Green transition: Investments must accelerate the decarbonization of all aspects of our economy.
2. Green jobs and sustainable and inclusive growth
3. Green economy: making societies and people more resilient through a transition that is fair to all and leaves no one behind.
4. Invest in sustainable solutions: fossil fuel subsidies must end and polluters must pay for their pollution.
5. Confront all climate risks
6. Cooperation – no country can succeed alone.

That was some efforts and actions being made and taken at the global level, but that doesn’t simply imply that you have nothing to do in this situation.

There are measures to take even at the personal level as every single of us is a potential climate victim. You can lean toward a greener life, emission less lifestyle by following some practices like preferring public transport or bicycles over personal cars or motorbikes, being sensitive to wastage of food, electricity, water, etc., and many more other practices.

And when these small changes are integrated are potent to bring bigger changes.

Conclusion 

Climate change is a big threat to humanity, and a real one, a threat to our species, created by us ourselves by our negligence toward sustainability of what we get as a resource from nature. As a result, we are witnessing a rapidly changing climate, which if allowed to continue is able to wipe out life or at least total humanity from the surface of this planet.

But, thanks to cumulative effects, we are slowly progressing to limit this change, but as said, it is slow. And by slow I mean way slower than the change. In this situation, we are being forced by nature to take steps without any delay. And in order to bring big enough changes, we need to work harder on it as a species, cumulatively, not only at the national or global level but also at the local and personal level.

The world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine, and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades.
-Barack Obama