Why Our World Will Likely End Soon

Depressing right? You guys might be wondering why I'm talking about the end of the world. The fact is that this world is more likely to end by the end of this century, maybe even sooner, given how we abuse it. Yes, this is a bit divergent from what I would normally prefer to write about, but one thing we humans fail to realize is that the biggest abuse that occurs in this world is the abuse humanity gives to our natural environment. Today, I watched the 2004 Movie, The Day After Tomorrow. That movie focuses on how global warming led to major ice caps melting, leading to a shift in a major Atlantic current that is responsible for our regular weather. Sound Familiar? It is because we are already living in a world where the major ice caps are melting at an alarming rate in the North and South.

According to NPR's article, Researchers Find Glaciers Are Melting Faster Than Expected,

"...estimates show that glaciers are losing about 267 gigatons of ice every year"

267 gigatons is roughly 266,700,000,000 tons of ice water that is being poured into the world's oceans. How long will it be before all the melted glaciers start affecting the major ocean currents that control major climate shifts? Take a look at UCAR's article, How Melting Arctic Ice Affects Ocean Currents,

"Even though warming is causing the disruption to ocean currents, stopped or slowed currents in the North Atlantic would cause regional cooling in Western Europe and North America. The ocean currents carry warmth from the tropics up to these places, which would no longer happen. If the currents were to stop completely, the average temperature of Europe would cool 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. There would also be impacts on fisheries and hurricanes in the region."

The movie shows what would happen if this occurs to a major ocean current; what would happen if it happened to all the ocean currents? Would humanity survive? Or would we be plunged into a new Ice Age?

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Our melting ice caps are not going to be the only cause of why our world is likely to end soon. In 2022, we are currently in the midst of a 2-year global pandemic that has killed millions of people; in the Middle East, people are dying of famine, lack of resources, and consistent war and conflict; in North America, we have wildfires ravaging the west, tornadoes hitting the south, and freezing rain and snow hitting the North MidWest and the North East.

Hell, we have massive islands of trash off the coasts of multiple major countries. The largest garbage patch, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is twice the size of Texas, with 3 million tons of plastic accumulated.

Not only is it one of the largest garbage patches that we have, but we also have one off the coast of the US and one off the coast of Japan. These aren't the only two, but this is the largest garbage patch we have with the most trash on the island. We have 5 major garbage patch gyres in the world, each in one of the main oceans.

Does anyone bother to think about what kind of effect that is having on ocean life and climate systems? Plastic doesn't degrade, but marine life may look for food on the island, mistaking a piece of plastic as a piece of prey. As a result, they would eat the plastic, and because plastic doesn't decompose and degrade, it doesn't break down within the animal's body. The toxicity from the plastic within these animals' digestive systems can end up killing them.

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I can keep going about the number of issues that are killing our world and go on about why it'll end. Let's move to one last major global issue that will eventually be the cause of the end of our world. COVID-19. COVID-19 started in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and now today, in January 2022 is now a global pandemic. If you do a basic google search, you can see that the total casualty count is now at 5.5 Million lives. There are now 5 different variants of COVID that is globally affecting everyone. And to make matters worse, because of all the policy and misinformation spread, not everyone wants to get the COVID vaccine, thus causing an even higher rise of COVID cases. Should I go on?

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What needs to happen is that we, as human beings need to change. And not just towards others, but towards ourselves, and towards our environment. It is the only way that we will ever be able to keep living in this big beautiful world, without fear. We take our natural environment for granted, because we assume that because the world has survived this long, it will continue to survive long past our deaths. But that is not the case. Humans have harmed the world so much in the last 2 centuries, that we've nearly depleted our natural environment. The Ozone Layer, which protects us from high UV rays by filtering it is nearly destroyed because of greenhouse gases. Our ice caps are melting at such a rate that it is causing so much natural issues in our natural ocean life. We throw so much into the oceans that our marine life is in danger. Oil, trash, waste, all toxic to our marine life's longevity, are thrown in the ocean on a daily basis. Some parts of the world have atmospheres so dry and dehydrated that massive wildfires are taking place. Think about what you can do to change this, what you can do to improve our world. We as human beings, should leave our world better than we found it when we pass, that way the next generation will be able to live in an even better environment. Just think about it.