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Seven Things To Consider As Climate Change Continues To Devastate The World Printer friendly page Print This
By Dallas Darling
Submitted by Author
Monday, Sep 17, 2018

Even if some refuse to change their minds about global warming, rising temperatures and is already changing them in more ways than can be imagined. To be sure, calling them a liberal conspiracy or saying they don’t exist doesn’t make it so. In fact, just look at the two most recent super storms Hurricane Florence and Super Typhoon Mangkut. Whereas Florence’s irregularity and devastation so far north in the Atlantic was caused by the unexpected Hadley Effect, a bigger, stronger, and more dangerous Mangkut made landfall with sustained winds of 165 mph and gusts up to 200 mph. Meanwhile, we can’t solve rising temperatures and climate change with the same kind of thinking that’s creating it.

Fire And Ice
As the world undergoes global warming, this doesn’t mean temperatures will rise all over. Some areas will instead get much hotter while others will face mini ice ages. This is due to melting sea ice that affects both jet streams and ocean currents. For the U.S. and other countries, the jet stream which acts like a barrier between cold northern polar air and warm southern moist air will undergo radical shifts. Extreme temperatures and massive wildfires where they normally don‘t occur will consequently continue. The same goes for the Gulf Stream. As it also changes, scientists predict Europe will face a mini ice age similar to the 17th century where food became scarce and the Thames River froze over.

The “Other” Infrastructure Beneath Our Feet
As massive ice shelves in the Arctic and Antarctica-Ayles, Larsen and Ross Ice Shelves-melt, sea levels will continue to rise. Not only is the U.S. and other countries already preparing to relocate thousands of people, but thousands of miles of coastline beneath the sub-arctic will continue to undergo patterns of erosion and flooding similar to permafrost degradation. In the next few years the world will see 300 million people flee inland to escape an inescapable truth: rising temperatures and climate change are causing sea levels to rise. As a result, no one individual or nation will be untouched by climate change. They’ll also be defined by what they don’t destroy.

The New “Climate” Refugee
Given that climate change will produce more mass migration, the Department of Defense called it “the most immediate risk to its security and that of other nations.” Consequently, the new “climate refugee” in parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas will pose a challenges to countries they’re forced to migrate too. This will include more extreme forms of nationalism and nativism. As drought grips more areas leading to a shortage of water and food, more resource wars will also occur. They’ll also be uneven, specifically damaging to developing nations and the poor. Until it breaks free from the chains of dirty energies, humankind will go on to condemn itself and future generations to more global catastrophes. It’ll also be an uneven effect, specifically damaging to the poor.

Deadly And Contagious Surprises
It’ll also condemn itself to an increase in epidemics and cancers. As more humans come into contact with new and dormant diseases, such as the Indonesian, Congo Basin and Amazonian Rainforest, melting permafrost will unleash its own deadly surprises. In fact, climate change is melting soils where long-dormant bacteria and viruses, trapped in ice and permafrost for centuries, are being revived. This includes the infectious Spanish influenza, small pox and anthrax spores that have killed several. But the vectors of deadly infections of the 18th and 19th Centuries aren’t the only contagions coming back to haunt humans. So too will new pathogens from earlier periods like the giant virus Mimivirus.

The Real Weapons Of Mass Destruction
There’s also the global food crisis and cost expenditures of relief-both of which are the real weapons of mass destruction and no know boundaries. With less land and shorter growing seasons, millions more will be forced to migrate. Scientists predict that by 2050, they’ll be a mass global decrease in food production leading to starvation and disease. According to the World Bank, some nations are already spending $100 billion annually for disaster relief. The next generation’s bill is expected to be even greater: $8.8 trillion. An issue as severe as war, future generations will have a right to ask what their parents were thinking-and doing-about climate change.

The Reality That Won’t Go Away
Despite this, the Trump Administration just rolled back regulations making it easier for energy companies to release methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases that contributes to rising temperatures and climate change, those concerned about the future of the Earth may have to put democracy on hold. This is especially true as the same administration bailed out of the Paris Climate Agreement-followed by other nations failing to live up to its inadequate goals. As a result, climate change is not the only existential threat. So too are regimes that ignore ecocides which lead to genocides-whether they be plutocratic or far-right and neo-liberal.

Considering how rising temperatures and climate change continues to devastate the world, it’s the kind of reality that even when you stop believing in it, it doesn’t-and won’t-go away.



Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and  www.WN.com/dallasdarling.



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