CLIMATE CHANGE IS WAKING UP DISEASES HIDDEN UNDER ICE

Much like we have seen as the subject of science fiction movies, where ancient alien beings are hidden for hundreds of thousands of years under the ice on earth, then suddenly come alive once unfrozen (The Thing a.k.a. The Thing from Another World).

In an interesting but terrifying parallel, deadly germs that have been absent for thousands of years might be awakening as climate change is melting permafrost soils that are allowing these long-dormant bacteria and viruses to spring back to life, the BBC reports. It’s already happened in a remote corner of the Siberian tundra called the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Circle, where a 12-year-old boy died and at least 20 people were hospitalized after being infected by anthrax.

Many deadly infections mankind has eradicated may thaw to create plagues upon humans once more.

EARTH COULD BECOME UNINHABITABLE FASTER THAN WE THINK

It’s not just sea-level rise that we should fear with global warming, but the byproducts of climate change which can be the catalyst in the undoing of life on earth as we know it. Sure, the ocean rising and drowning coastal cities is a huge problem.

But the other things that will come – sooner than we think – are even more dreadful. Permafrost, so-called because it keeps soil permanently frozen, is thawing. As it does, it can potentially release 1.8 trillion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. The carbon may evaporate as methane creating a greenhouse-gas effect 34 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The other thing we have to worry about is “heat death.” Consider jungle climates where the humidity routinely exceeds 90 percent. Moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit, within a few hours would cause a body to be cooked to death from both inside and out. Scientists believe we are close to the true redline for habitability.

TOO HOT TO GROW FOOD?
As heat increases on the planet, it decreases the yield of foods, a decline of 10 percent for every degree of warming. Simple math dictates that if earth is 5 degrees warmer at the end of the century, the population is expected to grow by 50 percent, while the decline of crop output will fall due to global warming by 50 percent. This year alone, the United Nations has warned that separate famine events in Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen could kill 20 million. Places on earth, like the tropics, are already too hot to grow grain efficiently. And, it’s not as simple as moving farms to other places. Some of the places crops are grown now originated because of the fertile soil there. Moving crops elsewhere doesn’t necessarily work because of the low quality of soil. Fertile growing soil is a process that develops over many centuries.

EXTREME DROUGHT
Some scientists predict that by 2080, unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, Europe will find itself in extreme drought permanently – much worse than that of the dustbowl that decimated the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. Scientists predict the same effect for Iraq, Syria, and much of the Middle East, as well as, parts of Australia, Africa, South America and portions of China. A study by NASA in 2015 predicted that drought in the American plains in the Southwest could be worse than any drought in a thousand years.

AIR THAT KILLS OR SICKENS YOU
Unfortunately, the air on earth isn’t just filled with that stuff our lungs need to breathe – oxygen – it is filled with other things harmful to our health and particles that can kill us. In China in 2013, the rate of smog was so high they called it an “air-pocalypse” and it was responsible for a third of all deaths in the country that year. Currently, carbon dioxide is growing in the atmosphere and has just crossed over 400 parts per million. Estimates are that it will hit 1,000 parts per million by 2100. At that high of a level it will impair human cognitive ability, causing it to decrease by 21 percent. Scientists say that it only takes a small increase since in air pollution to shorten life spans by a decade. As the planet warms, more ozone forms. And that by 2090, as many as 2 billion people on the planet will be breathing air that is unsafe. Researchers say that the risk of autism occurring in new births increases 10 times for pregnant mothers exposed to high levels of ozone.

THE POISONING OF THE OCEANS
The first, but not even the worst, threat of changes to the oceans is that global warming will raise sea-levels and flood coastal cities, which by the way, a third of the world’s major cities lie on the coast. But in its aftermath, flooding will also disrupt the major industries found on the coast such as those that power plants, fisheries, rice-paddy farms, ports which bring goods to and fro, naval bases, farmlands and more. Many scientists believe we will see anywhere between 4 feet to possibly 10 feet of sea-level rise by the end of the century. This is a problem because at least 600 million people on earth live within 10 feet of sea level currently. But the most fearsome threat of all is that climate change may poison the oceans. The ocean is a huge food supplier for humanity. What’s in the air goes in the ocean, too. Like a sponge, the ocean sucks up carbon from the atmosphere and creates what is called “ocean acidification.” That process in itself may add a half of degree of warming within the next century. This acidification process, which we already see killing off coral reefs, is a huge problem because these reefs support as much as 25 percent of all marine life, which in turn is the food supply for half a billion people on the planet. The short of it is, all these processes lead to other processes which become toxic to marine life and creates a chain-reaction of death to the ocean’s living creatures. Eventually, the gases in the waters can be released into the atmosphere which poisons everything on land as well.

(Editor’s Note: The time to take action is NOW…!  Do what you can to become involved in your community’s efforts to save the planet!)

From BBC News App:

‘I fixed a butterfly’s broken wing to remember my mother’

Disclaimer: The BBC is not responsible for the content of this email, and anything written in this email does not necessarily reflect the BBC’s views or opinions. Please note that neither the email address nor name of the sender have been verified.

RSPB Minsmere winter starling murmuration