Climate change: Facing the future

In recent years, climate change has been a much talked about issue, with many debates over its possible impact on the world, and some even going so far as to question its very existence. However, with the undeniable increase in greenhouse emissions on Earth, there can be no doubt that the earth is becoming warmer, and scientific studies have proven that if we carry on living the way we do, then global temperatures will rise even more. So what exactly does this mean for the future of our planet? In chilly places like the UK, we may think to ourselves: ‘Finally, warmer weather!’ But global warming will in fact cause extreme weather conditions, meaning that our winters would be even colder than they are now. More than that, warmer temperatures will lead to the melting of ice in the north and south poles, which in turn will lead to rising sea levels across the globe. This is particularly troubling for low coastal regions such as Florida in the USA which would be among the first to be flooded, along with many islands around the world, including the United Kingdom. In 1000 years or so, all these places and more will be submerged underwater. So where will be able to live? Unless we can find a way to evolve into mermaids and mermen, which doesn’t look promising, the only solution is to move elsewhere. There will be little choice left once a large proportion of the land is lost to the sea, and other remaining places will be so hot that they will be absolutely impossible to survive in. Countries that we consider to be hot these days will be even more so if temperatures increase by 5, 10, even 15 degrees; countries like Australia and India, among others. It is possible, then, that the once frozen poles of the Arctic and Antarctica will be suitable enough to live in, having melted its ice and warmed up. It’s a scary thought to imagine such devastation on Earth, and to think of our descendants struggling to survive in a virtually uninhabitable world. Perhaps if people start to realise how their actions now can have such a profound impact on future generations, they will change their attitude and start to think more about caring for the environment, in order to save it. If not, we’ll be living in a world underwater and will need to think of a way to turn ourselves into mermaids!