Why I Think The World Is (Slowly) Ending
Warning: This was made by some random guy on the internet. While credible government and university websites were used, take everything on the internet with a grain of salt.
Straight and to the point? Check. The title says it all, and I'm going to convince you to think the same. Apologies if this is boring, I'm using a new style of writing.
I think the world is going to end and there is almost nothing anybody can, or will, do about it. No, I'm not saying that the world is ending in 2012 because some ancient civilization supposedly predicted it. I'm saying that in a century or two, life on earth will be almost completely obliterated. Not all at once, but slowly. I have two reasons, but today I'll talk about the first. Climate change.[1]
Edit: In the middle of writing this and looking for sources I found a whole site that pretty much wrote this article but with much better writing quality. For more info, check out GlobalChallenges.org
I can already hear (or maybe read, ha) some of the comments now saying 'Climate change isn't real, Mr. Trump said so'. Well let's not make this political, this is a scientific fact, and it's affecting the world. This isn't something you 'believe' in, there's actual, scientific evidence showing that it's real. You want some proof, check this, that, also this, also that, etc, etc, etc. If you still don't believe that this is an issue, please feel free to discuss this with me in the comments.
Those of you who do understand that global warming and climate change are real, but don't see it as a threat, this may change your mind. First off, oceans are rising. With the planet being baked by how thick the atmosphere is trapping heat, the ice caps are melting off. To those that are heavily inland, this might not mean much to you, but it will affect you. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of the polar ice caps melting. What you might not have known was how quickly the ice is melting. According to NASA's tracking of Arctic sea ice[2], the amount of ice is decreasing at 12.8% per decade. 12.8%!!! That means in less than 80 years, if we don't do anything, the polar ice caps could be completely gone. And it could be even sooner since the rate is getting faster every year[3]. This will affect everyone, and it's already harming animals that live in the Arctic, like the polar bear.[4]
And not just animals are being killed. People that live on islands and even some countries are finding that it's disappearing. The Republic of the Maldives, a very popular tourist country, will be devastated by this because of how low the island is.[5]
Even if you're one of those people with absolutely no empathy for other living creatures, you should still be worried. If you are one of 25 million people who live on the coasts, this will certainly affect you.[6] If you have family on the coast, it will affect you. Even if after this, you still don't care at all, then congratulations. You get to live in a man-made hell while everyone else dies. Happy?
Oh, but don't get too excited. Even if after all of this, you still don't think this will affect you, it will. Since warm air can hold more moisture[8], larger and more powerful storms may be in your future; including hurricanes. And since there will be less land for hurricanes to cross, global warming might be a big deal after all.
This article's gotten really long, so I'm going to break this into two parts. You can expect part two within a few days since this was pretty exhausting. If there are any questions, concerns, or just wanna discuss this, please feel free to comment. If you liked this, a resteem and an upvote will help me to continue writing :)
auf Wiedersehen!
Sources:
[2] NASA Climate
[3] Warming Seas and Melting Ice Sheets
[4] Polar bears across the Arctic face shorter sea ice season
[5] Maldives
[6] Climate Impacts on Coastal Areas
[7] FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT
[8] The Hurricanes, and Climate-Change Questions, Keep Coming. Yes, They’re Linked.