We are in a grave danger and most of us don’t realize it. We keep on worsening this planet’s condition.
Climate change is killing us in many ways beyond our wildest imagination. One way is by drowning us with melting iceberg, and that might be the nicest way they do it. Many small countries in Oceania have already felt the impact of rising sea surface because of melting icebergs.
Extreme weather is another ‘nice’ way for climate change to kill us. In example, we have more hurricane nowadays, with bigger scale and more frequent appearance. While on the other side of the world, people are dying from severe drought.
But those mentioned above are not all, there are so many other ways for climate change to kill us, and some are pretty ‘weird’. Here in this article, we will show you some weird ways climate change can wipe humanity out, as compiled in New York Magazine.
Killed By War
As mentioned above, there are so many ways climate change can kill us. But among those many things, you might never imagine how climate change can lead to world war, which will eventually wipe humanity out.
The example is prolonged war in Syria, which was started with civil war. Now, it is an international concern, since the effect of the war is spreading through the middle east. This is where climate change took part in it.
The civil war was started during prolonged drought in the country. Drought affected welfare of the people in Syria, and some citizens weren’t happy with that condition. Such kind of condition likely can happen anywhere around the world this century.
With worse climate change condition, and rising global temperature, social conflicts more likely to happen. “Overall, social conflict could more than double this century,” as stated by David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine writer.
The statement is based on actual research, which said that for every half-degree increase in global temperature, armed conflict increases by 10% to 20%. With current calculation, which said that the temperature is likely to rise about 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, it means that there is around 40% more chance for armed conflict to occur.
Foodless World
Climate change and global warming are threatening our food supply. As the temperature of this world keeps on increasing from time to time, the size of the threat gets bigger, as well as its chance to happen. The reason is because we rely too much on too many variety of staple.
Most of us rely on too many kind of food, such as cereal crops like rice and wheat. The problem is, those plants don’t grow well in hotter climate. That’s why in most tropical countries, there is no wheat being grown and only specific variety of rice can be grown.
If someday temperate regions become too tropical, entire wheat crops will simply vanish. The change is surely happening, and if we don’t do anything we should say goodbye to bread and beer. Both products are the most consumed wheat product in the world.
The problem is, it already starts happening nowadays. The prove is how mosquitoes are becoming more common last entire summer in temperate areas. Mosquitoes are more common in tropical areas, thus when it starts to appear more often in temperate areas, it means the areas are slowly changing into more tropical.
It doesn’t stop there. What about the already tropical areas? The answer is drought and withering crops. Most of our staple crops cannot withstand too high temperature, and if it lasts for long, there is only a little chance for the farmers to be able to grow the crops. It is starting to happening.
Losing Intelligence
It might sound funny, but it is possible. There is a chance that climate change can wipe humanity off from this planet by making us more and more stupid. Yes, in the future, the movie “Idiocracy” might become true.
How is that possible? There is one specific way climate change make us more stupid: by limiting our oxygen supply. Human brains need sufficient amount of oxygen to work well, and when the supply is limited it means that our brains won’t be able to work well.
Instead, our body will be filled with carbon dioxide. Unlike oxygen, carbon dioxide is not really good for our bodies. High concentration of carbon dioxide can affect our cognitive ability, and when we have less oxygen with more carbon dioxide it means that we will become less capable.
“The fraction of carbon dioxide is growing. It just crossed 400 parts per million, and high-end estimates extrapolating from current trends suggest it will hit 1,000 ppm by 2100. At that concentration, compared to the air we breathe now, human cognitive ability declines by 21 percent,” Wallace-Wells wrote.
The Return Of Ancient Plagues
Among those ‘weird’ things mentioned above, this one is the most horrible way for climate change to wipe humanity off. Yes, just as the header says, there is a chance that ancient plagues will make a comeback. Thanks to climate change.
A bunch of intact “ancient” bacteria and viruses are frozen beneath the surface ice. Because of the impact of global warming and climate change, the ice layer is melting. This condition may lead to the resurrection of those ancient bacteria and viruses.
This is not a joke, nor a science-fiction story. There is already a prove of ancient virus discovery when scientists found the virus of 1918 influenza epidemic. This virus has killed over 100 million people at that time, and when the researchers found it, it was still intact.
Another story comes from a boy that was killed by ancient anthrax virus. “Already last year, a boy was killed and 20 others infected by anthrax released when retreating permafrost exposed the frozen carcass of a reindeer killed by the bacteria at least 75 years earlier,” Wallace-Wells mentioned.
Not only that, research showed that other modern days reindeer are now carrying the plague in their bodies. “2,000 present-day reindeer were infected, too, carrying and spreading the disease beyond the tundra.”
So, looking on those cases, do you still think that climate change is not a thing? None of us would wish for any of those cases mentioned above to come true, right?
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