Climate change
What are the dangers?
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We all know that climate change is dangerous. But what exactly is threatening us in a few years’ time? The dangers are more diverse than most people realize. Trying to find a simple explanation.
This issue concerns us all: Climate change is one real threat to us humans. Most know that the earth is heating up, polar ice is melting, and sea levels are rising. However, that is by no means the only danger.
Climate change – incredibly complex
Climate change is one of the largest and most complex threats of the world. Not even experts understand in detail everything that is going on there. However, there is one thing that scientists are certain of: we have to rethink and act quickly – otherwise there will be catastrophic consequences.
The author David Wallace-Wells has in his book “The uninhabitable earth: life after global warmingWe present the dangers here briefly and in a simplified form (for more background information and analyzes, we can recommend reading the book).
What are the dangers of climate change?
The effects of climate change are varied and dangerous for us humans. Researchers see the following dangers facing us humans:
- Heat death
The human body can only survive in a certain temperature window. A (quite realistic) global warming of four degrees by the year 2100 would make working outdoors impossible in large parts of the world in summer; it would be as hot in New York as it is today in the desert state of Bahrain. An unrealistic, but blatant calculation to make it clear: If the earth were to warm up by eleven to twelve degrees, half of the people on earth would die – the people would boil away internally and externally. - hunger
For us humans, grain is one of the most important sources of food – both for direct consumption and as feed for the animals that we eat. But grain only grows and thrives under certain conditions. For every degree of global warming, the yield drops by 10 percent. If the earth warms by five degrees, it is likely that only 50 percent of the world’s grain will be available – and at the same time the world population will grow rapidly. - Drown
The rise in sea level is the most striking threat posed by climate change. But it does not only affect coastal residents: In the coming decades, we are constantly faced with devastating floods and floods that will cost many people their lives and cause millions in damage. - Conflagration
Hot and dry climates favor forest fires all over the world. For the past few years, we’ve heard time and again in the news about widespread fires that have devastated vast areas. Dramatic effect: These forest fires also release the CO2 bound in the trees and thus further accelerate climate change. - “Natural disasters”
We will have to get used to a completely new way of looking at extreme weather conditions. As a result of climate change, the entire weather system is thrown out of balance, and more and more phenomena arise that we would have called “natural disasters” in the past, but which appear to us to become more and more normal over time. There were several “storms of the century” with devastating consequences in a single summer off the American east coast – and the last will not be. - Fresh water shortage
Drinking water is already a rare commodity in many parts of the world. But the situation will worsen as the population grows and freshwater stocks decline, for example due to lakes drying up or contaminated by bacteria. By 2050, around five billion people could suffer from a lack of drinking water. - Dying seas
The warming seas slowly “acidify” because they absorb more and more carbon dioxide. This harms many sea creatures who die or have to find a new home. A drastic example is the massive coral death – on the Great Barrier Reef, for example, a good half have died since 2016. Why is that dramatic? Such reefs provide food and retreats for other living beings (and thus provide us humans with food and work), and they also protect coasts from flooding. - Polluted air
“Fresh air” is not only good for us, it is also really important for us humans. However, climate change with the increased CO2 values means that our air (especially in cities) is getting worse and worse. The consequences are severe physical and mental illnesses that will lead to the death of millions of people. An example: In the particularly bad year 2013, 1.37 million people died as a result of smog in China alone. - Disease alert
Terrible diseases that are spreading around the world are also among the consequences of climate change. One thinks, for example, of mosquitoes that can transmit epidemic diseases: global warming means that the area in which they can survive and spread is becoming larger and larger – and thus the possible radius for diseases. Also scary: pathogens for diseases that afflicted the earth millions of years ago are bound in the arctic ice. Climate change could melt the ice and release the pathogens – with unpredictable consequences. - Economic collapse
Experts are certain that climate change will have a major impact on our economy. The aforementioned disasters (floods, fires, epidemics) will cause high costs, and there is also a risk of extreme losses, for example in agriculture or the real estate industry (we can all imagine what rising sea levels will mean for expensive beach villas). Another effect that everyone can notice for themselves in a hot summer: the higher the temperatures, the more unproductive we humans are. If the heating continues, the gross national products will shrink worldwide. - Climate conflicts
A not immediate but very serious consequence will be (armed) conflicts in many parts of the world. Rising temperatures also have an impact on crime rates, researchers warn. Our world is becoming more aggressive. In addition, we are facing wars over food and basic supplies, for example. - “Systems”
The different effects of climate change lead to new consequences and in some cases reinforce each other. In professional circles, this is referred to as a “threat multiplier”. One consequence of the aforementioned dangers will be global flows of so-called climate refugees, who overshadow everything that we have known about migration so far. Millions of people will flee from floods, from epidemics and conflicts – and this situation in turn will present us with new challenges.
How sure is it that it will really turn out that way?
David Wallace-Wells answers this question in his book: How severe the consequences of climate change really are depends on several factors and cannot be answered with complete certainty, even by experts. The main reason for this is that the various effects are partly different condition, strengthen or weaken each other – and that it is still completely unclear whether we are human Rethink and act in good time.
In the best case scenario, the effects hardly occur because we humans “got the corner” in time. In the worst case scenario, it all happens much sooner, much worse.
Even if there are still uncertainties, the experts’ calculations are not useless – because they show us what is likely to happen there. And that should really scare us. Because: We have to be afraid to take climate change seriously.
“The uninhabitable earth: life after global warming“(Ludwig-Verlag, 18 euros)