Deserted cities have always been a running theme of post-apocalyptic films - I Am Legend,
Mad Max, The Matrix, and more.
I’ve always loved these kinds of films, but honestly, during the pandemic, they hit
too close to home – homes like London, Dhaka, Mumbai, Beijing; just look at how empty
they’ve been.
If there’s something COVID-19 has shown the world, it’s that when it comes to science,
what it predicts will happen can occasionally threaten the entire world, and our way of
life.
If you thought COVID-19 was crazy, then what if we told you that climate change is crazier?
There’s proof that the impact of climate change has been accelerating in the last few
years - the last decade was the hottest ever recorded, on land and in the oceans.
We have seen seven Category 5 hurricanes – the strongest you can get – in the Atlantic
in just the past five years.
And the amount of ice left in the polar region in the summers?
Pretty pathetic.
But we’re not going to lie to you – climate science isn’t simple.
Because how the Earth works isn’t simple.
But then, how can climate scientists be so sure things are getting dangerous?
Well in this Think video, we’re going to help you find the answer to this question,
and many more, by first understanding what climate change is, why the world is warming
up, and how we humans are causing it.
We’re joined by the Professor and Department Head of Emergency Management at Jacksonville
State University in the United States, Dr. Tanveer Islam.
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Climate models strongly suggest that global temperatures have risen throughout the past
10,000 years.
But does that mean today’s extreme warming is just part of that natural incline?
No – since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which we humans started in the
eighteenth century, the rate of temperature rise has surpassed all previous records.
This was the increase in temperature from 10,000 years ago to 1800, then this was
the increase from 1800 to today.
You don’t need to be a scientist to see this clear correlation - but obviously it
helps.
And it’s us – we were responsible for this.
Mass industrialisation built on fossil fuels like coals, oil and natural gas started in
the UK and US before spreading to the rest of Europe and the world.
The human population has tripled in the last century, and we’re clearing forests en masse
to grow crops for us to eat.
Since 1800, all of this activity, which increases year on year, emits gases – especially CO2
and methane – that stick around in the atmosphere.
We burn fossil fuels and release carbon that has been stored for a million years or more.
These ‘greenhouse’ gases are like a warm blanket around the Earth’s atmosphere – trapping
in the heat of the sun.
If you’ve ever actually been inside a greenhouse and felt how HOT it can be in there, it’s
a bit like that.
As this blanket gets thicker, the earth gets hotter.
And as the earth gets hotter, well, remember we said climate change is complicated?
It makes that complicated system do things that aren’t going to be good for me and
you.
And look, it’s true that climate change is a natural process on earth – all change
is.
Since the beginning of life itself, the earth has had periods where it's been covered by
huge ice sheets.
There was even a time where there was little or no ice at the poles, and a massive forest
on the continent of Antarctica!
We’ve seen 5 of these ‘ice ages’, and it is said that we live in the last ice age
and in the warm bit between two glacial periods, which is called the Holocene epoch.
The world warmed 5 to 10 C from the Pleistocene Epoch before it.
All the civilizations of the world – and the origin of agriculture – have started
in the Holocene period.
However, the Earth’s temperature also fluctuated during this epoch.
For example from 1300 to about 1850, the world, especially Europe, was very cold, known as
the Little Ice Age.
The Earth's average temperature dropped by about 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit)
during this time - London’s Thames river would freeze over every winter.
One thing that scientists found was that you could use CO2 levels to accurately show the
Earth’s temperature as far back at least the last million years by drilling core samples
from deep underneath the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica and studying the gasses trapped
in ice cores.
And that’s where we’re in trouble.
You see, the amount of CO2 in 2020 was about 417.16 parts per million, which is higher
than at any point in at least the past million years.
If CO2 is a predictor of the Earth’s temperature, what does this huge spike mean?
Well, we’re already seeing more cyclones, floods, droughts, snowstorms – we’ve seen
this increase happening in Bangladesh, India, the US, all across the world.
But more worrying is the fact that we actually don’t know exactly how it will mess up our
climate.
You see, this huge increase in CO2 is ‘disrupting the Earth’s natural climate cycles or climate
clock’ - a super sensitive and yes, complex, system.
We’ve never had this much global warming at this rate, ever.
It’s so serious, scientists have unofficially said we’re ending the Holocene era and are
entering a new era - the Anthropocene - Anthro being the word for ‘human’.
Our impact on the world has incited significant geographical change – potentially an apocalypse.
Look, we know for sure now that there is only one way to save our home - we need to come
together to reverse the Earth’s CO2 levels back to a natural balance as soon as possible.
The Earth’s population growth seems to be stabilising as we have taken action collectively,
but now we need to cut our use of fossil fuels, stop deforestation and destroying our oceans
and reduce the greenhouse gases associated with farming.
We all have to do our part, individually and as a single planet community.
Although we can’t exactly predict which cities will be hit first and hardest, scientists
can make some pretty good guesses.
All of us, for the first time, have seen how a global pandemic can turn our lives upside
down – yet, climate change has the potential to be even more disruptive.
Not just to our great grandchildren’s lives – it affects us.
It’s an imminent, and frankly scarier, threat; and everyone from scientific communities to
businesses to activist groups to ordinary people around the world are being compelled
to do more – the Think team is no exception.