Humans are approaching the point of doom?

The continuous disasters that hit all continents are evidence, a terrible warning about the human race going to extinction due to climate change.

From fires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of land to historic 'once in a thousand years' floods, humans are paying the price for the impacts of climate change.

Disaster after disaster

In August, a record-breaking heatwave in decades in Greece led to nearly 100 wildfires across the southern European country. Nearly 100,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land burned in less than two weeks. The Greek prime minister called it a 'big ecological disaster not seen in decades' in the country.

Fires this past summer claimed the lives of 80 people in Algeria and Turkey. Italy and Spain also suffered a lot of damage due to the inability to control the fires.

Two months earlier, Western Canada and the Northwest of the United States suffered from a terrible heat wave that lasted for many days.

The five-day rain caused Australia's worst flooding in more than 50 years. (Photo: Reuters)

In the village of Lytton in Lytton, British Columbia, 250 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, the temperature on a late June day at one point reached 49.5 degrees Celsius. Steve Addison, an official with the Vancouver Police Department said the city Never experienced such intense heat.

Dozens of people in Lytton died from the heat. This number across Canada amounts to more than 230 people.

Henan province, China in July suffered a "once in a thousand years" flood. In Zhengzhou City, 617.1 mm of rain fell in three days, nearly equal to the city's average annual rainfall.

An estimated 292 people died and 47 were missing in this historic flood. Floodwaters flooded many road tunnels and subway systems, causing many people to drown.

Images of floodwaters pouring down electric subway systems appeared not only in China, but were also recorded in the British capital London during the floods in July and in New York when Tropical Storm Elsa hit the city. this.

Also in July, short-term intense rainfall caused historic flooding in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This is considered the worst natural disaster in these countries in decades.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that in just two days, July 15 and 16, many parts of Europe experienced rainfall equivalent to the amount of rain in two months.

In Germany, the death toll in the historic flood reached nearly 200 people. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was appalled by the terrible damage caused by the floods.

A few months earlier, torrential downpours hit eastern Australia , forcing thousands of people to evacuate to avoid flooding not seen in decades - just a year after the region was hit by drought and bushfires. serious.

Non-stop rain has caused river levels in New South Wales - Australia's most populous state - to rise to the highest level in three decades.

In the spring, late frosts when temperatures plummeted have ravaged vineyards in France. This extreme weather phenomenon reduced the country's grape production by about 30%, causing $2.3 billion in damage.

Analysis by the World Weather Attribution Scientific Association (WWA) shows that climate change caused the historic cold that devastated about 70 percent of France's wine regions.

Extreme weather caused by climate change is thought to be the main cause of billions of locusts multiplying, flooding East Africa in January 2020, threatening to cause food crises in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.

In other countries on the continent, torrential rains forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Somalia while towns in South Sudan were submerged in floodwaters.

In Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania, flash floods and landslides claimed dozens of lives.

In the Arctic, high temperatures sparked unusual wildfires across remote forests and frigid plains in June 2020.

The terrible impact of climate change

Experts believe that all extreme climate events stem from the effects of climate change.

"It's really scary. How can we prepare for a storm that is expected to happen in the next 100 years but can actually hit tomorrow," said Sarah Kaufman, deputy director of the Center for Transport Rudin of New York University, shared when talking about Tropical Storm Elsa that hit New York in July.

A historic sandstorm hit China and Mongolia in April 2021. (Image: Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Mr. Mohamed Nasheed - former President of the Maldives, the island nation is at risk of being wiped out if sea ​​levels rise, saying that although not all countries are affected equally, this tragic event is a A reminder that in a climate emergency, no one is safe whether they live in a small island nation like ours or a developed Western European country.

According to Chinese experts, the "once in a thousand years" flood made the people of this country feel more clearly than ever the consequences of the climate crisis.

Whether in China or other regions of the world, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are closely related to the phenomenon, said Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the China National Climate Center. global warming.

He also warned that extreme weather events "will happen more frequently in China due to global warming, which makes the country very vulnerable".

Climate change is causing storms to increase in number and more dangerous in severity.

'We've been observing the globe over the past 30 years, and we've found that the strongest storms are all getting stronger as the oceans warm,' said Professor James Elsner, an atmospheric scientist from Florida State University. .

Scientists fear that fires in the Arctic are a warning sign that the weather in the frigid land is becoming drier, leading to forest fires occurring more frequently. release a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions - the factor that warms the Earth.

Data recorded more than 100 years ago to the present also shows that Arctic temperatures have reached new records in the last few years.

As the Arctic heats up causing the ice to melt, more regions will absorb heat faster. Since the 1970s, the area of ​​Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 70% and dropped to its lowest level in 2019.

New research also shows that the melting of permafrost can release dangerous ingredients such as toxic chemicals and radioactive materials accumulated since the Cold War, as well as microorganisms such as The virus stuck in the ice for a long time.

Humans are approaching the prospect of extinction?

In a report released in March 2020, the United Nations warned of harmful emissions, contaminated drinking water and destruction of ecosystems that play an essential role in the lives of billions of people around the world. gender.

The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) report conducted over 6 years by 250 scientists from 70 countries around the world shows that extreme environmental conditions cause nearly 25% of disease and deaths. worldwide.

A record heatwave in decades in Greece led to nearly 100 wildfires across the southern European country. (Photo: Reuters)

They also warn that up to 1 million species of about 8 million species in the world are at risk of extinction within the next few decades.

Many scientists conclude that our planet has indeed entered a phase known as "mass extinction".

"The Earth is in the middle of a sixth mass extinction," warned Sir David Attenborough, a famous British naturalist.

Some environmentalists claim the Earth is going through a process of biological destruction as billions of animal populations have been lost in recent decades. This means that the sixth extinction is happening and is more severe than the previous five.

According to Frédérik Saltré, researcher in Ecology at Australia's Center for Biodiversity and Heritage Research, in contrast to the previous five mass extinctions, direct and indirect human activities such as deforestation Habitat destruction, indiscriminate fishing and hunting, chemical pollution, invasive species and global warming are responsible for the extinction of many organisms on Earth.

The warning, published by 11,000 scientists from 153 countries in the journal BioScience, on the 49th anniversary of the first world climate conference in December 2019, affirms that humanity will face a catastrophe narrated because of climate change.

"We state clearly and unequivocally that the Earth is facing a climate emergency. The climate crisis is coming and accelerating faster than scientists predicted. It's serious. more importantly, threatening natural ecosystems and humanity" , the scientists concluded.

Scientists think that in just about 30 years, people will be able to see the consequences of that everywhere. But clearly, continuously in the past few months, we have been feeling how much climate change is hurting the Earth.