Jammu, July 15: The subject of climate change is again in the news due to various reasons like freak weather, sudden floods, drought and other calamities that has become a world phenomenon and shows its brutal face every now and then.
The situation is attributed to the climate change taking place on Earth and blamed on the human race that has vandalized the natural resources of the Earth without caring for the consequences or any repair method.
While in Jammu and Kashmir we have been witnessing the brutal face of the climate change since last year the experts warn that such situation is only going to worsen in the years to come due to our vandalism of the nature.
The scientists even warn us that we have lost the opportunity to save this Earth as no amount of damage control can reverse the major climate changes that have taken place particularly thinning of the ice sheets making the Earth vulnerable to submerge in the water.
In a recent report scientists predicted that with the current global warming and the efforts that are going on to keep it within 2 degree Celsius, the water levels might rise upto 20 feet even if we succeed in keeping the global average temperature to current prescribed limits.
In an article Storm Surge, Suzette Gutierrez quoting news reports and a study published in the journal Science on July 10, has said that “global warming brought about by climate change may cause water levels to rise up to 20 feet.
Based on past climate patterns, sea levels increased to 20 feet at least twice in the last 3 million years when the global temperature reached the same level as it has today. In other words, the pattern shows that sea levels increased dramatically in the past when Earth was as warm as it is today.”
He further adds that “Modern atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are equivalent to those about 3 million years ago, when sea level was at least 6 meters higher because the ice sheets were greatly reduced,” said Anders Carlson, co-author of the study and a glacial geologist and paleoclimatologist at Oregon State University, CBS News reports.”
“It takes time for the warming to whittle down the ice sheets, but it doesn’t take forever. There is evidence that we are likely seeing that transformation begin to take place now,” he added.”
In another similar article published by Jagran Post quoting Daily Mail London it is reported that “The continental crust we live on is getting thinner and could disappear entirely, scientists warn. It means that the future of the Earth could well be the same as depicted in the science fiction film ‘Waterworld’.”
However there is some solace and bad news also for the people living currently on the Earth as according to a report in The Guardian, “the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels some 400,000 years ago when average global temperature rose to 1 to 2 degree Celsius were 280 parts per million while today they are 400 parts per million, and they continue to rise which means we may witness rise of the water levels from 20 to 40 feet near coastal areas.
The good news however comes from the article in Daily Mail which says that “It is not going to happen for at least another two billion years, as per the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, which aims to examine how the continental crust formed and changed during the Earth’s history.
The crux of the story is that this world is heading towards a watery grave and it may come sooner than later if we continue to vandalize our natural resources as we have been doing currently and do not take some drastic damage control exercise which includes changing the individual behavior towards preservation of the nature.
Nature has always been warning us and it is upto us how we take the warnings in right perspective and save this beautiful Earth from extinction.