It is not warm but an inferno. Global warming has entered the next stage of global infernos. This summer, Europe saw a summer inferno. Before that, the United States of America saw a heat wave killing more than 1300 people. We can never stop the sea waves; so can the heat waves. What is ensuing for humanity is a real conflagration.
Human life on earth without oxygen is impossible. In the modern world, human life is impossible without burning either biomass or fossil fuel. As much as the pollution burning fossil fuels releases, biomass also releases pollution. With the onset of industrialization in the second half of the 18th century, the size of fossil fuel burning rose 4000 times. Biomass burning did not decrease drastically, maintaining its contribution to pollution unchanged. Studies found biomass burning releases aerosol particles and gaseous pollutants. We see rampant biomass burning in villages where we misconstrue that the impact of pollution is less than the pollution in industrial zones.
The burning of fossil fuel and biomass equally releases carbon atoms which combine with oxygen in the air to produce carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is not hostile to human life but sentry of the potential hydrogen (pH) of the blood and works as a pH balancer in the human body system. It is a vital buffer in the body system. The excessive concentration of carbon dioxide consequent from too much burning is harmful. So when we burn forests and agricultural wastes, we don’t get what we need, but what is sin. That is where our concern begins, and we continue to like the forbidden action.
Nearly twenty-five years ago we had never imagined paying money to buy drinking water. Today without paying for it we don’t get drinking water, at least in cities. Indian villagers travel miles to fetch clean drinking water. Europeans get wine more easily than bottled water. Maybe a century ago, rich Indian villages never imagined buying food grains at a cost. It is now a part of their life. If this can happen, the time for paying money for oxygen is not far away.
Today when you are reading this, you may laugh and think “how absurd it is to pay money for one’s natural right of breathing!”. Already humans are struggling to have clean oxygen, only because of our non-correctable mistakes. We have travelled a lot so our return journey is too cumbersome to reach our destination.
In the summer of 2022, the UN Secretary-General mentioned that very soon half of the human population would vanish from earth due to our uncorrectable mistake. A person holding a credible position as UN Secretary-General may not say anything illogical without a proper study. He might have something concrete in his hand to validate his comment before commenting so.
All rulers of the world are aware of this serious matter, though they do not disclose this to the common public. They hide it fearing that their drastic step might cost their power at home. They hand over the heating baton to the next one and zip their mouth about the ensuing disaster.
Global warming is no more a philosophical subject. It is a present disaster, as we experience it now, not the future to comfort ourselves. Still, we are not bothered about it. The governments all over the world in their race for building industries and inviting investments put all the serious issues to rust and rot.
It is a concern of serious importance for commoners. The government is supposed to take care of it, instead of rolling the ball and passing it on to the next one. Europe is generally known to be colder than Asia. Now a heat wave is spreading over Europe. Central and southern England witnessed an unprecedented heat wave with a temperature over 40 degrees celsius in July 2022. This is something Europe never experienced. Portugal experienced a temperature of 47 degree celsius. The European summer of 2022 witnessed the death of 1500 people that rattled not only Europe but also the entire world. The heat wave killed 1300 people in the United States of America. Every year the heated-related death toll is rising steeply.
Humans count the death toll and try to defend themselves with cooling systems. What about animals? Many animals die of heat waves and wildfires. Farmers will suffer financial losses. Droughts continue to spoil their crops to bring adverse impacts on the food supply. Fire by the European heat wave engulfed eighty square miles of forest in southwest France into ashes. Thousands of families had to flee their homes. The wildfire and heat waves are indications of what is ensuing for the entire world. What was once a decade is now an annual apprehension. The earth is hotter by 1.1 % than the pre-industrial world. It can only get hotter. Those who migrated to these places with a dream of living in a paradise may rethink finding a cooler place with cleaner drinking water.
Humans are more easily trainable than any other animal. But they do not wake up until destruction emerges within their precincts. Instead, shrewder humans take it as an opportunity to build industries around human hardship with the climate. That could be one of the reasons those who are supposed to promote awareness show a lukewarm approach to the serious issue.
Media hype on gossip diverts our attention to aberrant and sensationalized non-issues. They are more commercial and under compulsion to write for commercial benefits. Creating awareness about global warming cannot be commercial because nobody will pay for it.
In this race to reach space and find a better paradise, we drive in reverse gear. Still, we do not know the direction, as we are enjoying the hallucination of modernity. We are now more set to destroy our future. No one is sure how long our species will remain on the earth. It will not bother anyone because everyone wants a better life.
Every country wants to build better economic well-being for people! The rich people everywhere want to run a more luxurious life. Poor people will continue to burn biomass for their heating needs. The farmers will continue to burn their agricultural waste. Today, it is Europe and the US. Tomorrow, the rest of the world!