An international panel of 25,000 scientists, who belonged to 130 countries, was formed under the aegis of the United Nations, the greatest international institution in the world. Headquartered at Paris, this panel was formed to investigate the causes of climate change. It completed its research and submitted a report to the United Nations. This sensational report was covered at length by the media, and was published in detail by the Times of India on February 3, 2007, titled ‘Warning Signs’. I think it would have been more appropriate to call it ‘Warning Signs of Doomsday.’
We have reached the beginning of the end, from which point people will start dying one-by-one, eventually putting an end to all life on earth. “We are on the edge of the greatest die-off humanity has ever seen. We will be lucky if 20 of us survive what is coming.”
In the context of recent deliberations by scientists from all over the world on this subject, the Times of India, published a report on May 18, 2007, titled ‘By 2050 the Earth Will be Arid and Empty.’ According to this report, a well-known scientist, James Lovelock, observed in the light of scientific information, that by 2050, a major part of the land surface would have become dry. This would pose a serious threat to the lives of all living beings. We have reached the beginning of the end, from which point people will start dying one by one, eventually putting an end to all life on earth. “We are on the edge of the greatest die-off humanity has ever seen. We will be lucky if 20 of us survive what is coming.” (p. 22)
A letter on this subject, written by Sir Isaac Newton, the famous British scientist in 1704, was displayed in a museum at Jerusalem. In this he wrote that the present world would come to an end in 2060. This was reported on the front page of the Times of India, June 18, 2007, under the heading, ‘Newton Saw End of the World in 2060.’
Sir Isaac Newton (d. 1727) had made this observation on the basis of a mathematical calculation based in turn on the classical laws of gravity and motion. This estimate appeared to be so strange that people took it as showing a superstitious side to Newton’s life. This letter was first shown to the public in 1969, when Jerusalem’s Hebrew University displayed it in an exhibition called ‘Newton’s Secrets’.
What Newton had observed by mathematical calculation regarding the end of the world has now become a known fact in science. The climate change taking place as a result of global warming in modern times has brought scientists to the conclusion that by 2010 the life support system will be so disturbed that most probably all kinds of life will come to an end on earth by 2050.
Negative Effects of Global Warming
The huge ice caps at both the north and south poles, the vast reservoirs of fresh water are now melting at an alarming rate. Also there are huge, mountain-top glaciers,—gigantic storehouses of drinking water—which, as a consequence of global warming, are likewise rapidly melting and their stored water is draining off into the oceans through the rivers.
Global warming is altering many features of the world permanently. A warmer world is having a big impact on extremes of temperature and rainfall with implications for human health, ecosystem survival and sustainable economic activity. Enhanced warming is expected to amplify the thawing of permafrost, and loss of seasonal snow cover of land ice and of Arctic sea ice. Climate change, besides other negative impacts, is resulting in two unbearable situations. On the one hand, very soon the level of water in the seas will rise, inundating coastal cities. On the other hand, the non-coastal areas will suffer from an intolerable water shortage. It is predicted by some scholars that the shortage of water will become so acute that even a third world war might take place over this issue.
Global warming has left the earth in crisis. A recent publication reporting on global warming from NASA’s top-representatives states “Earth in Crisis.” ‘Time’ reporting of a Study on melting of glaciers stated, “Glacier Loss Is 'Unstoppable.' Revelation explains that Doomsday is not far.
The rivers are always full of water, because the ice in the mountains keeps gradually melting the whole year round and this water continuously comes to the rivers through tributaries. But when all this ice has melted, naturally the rivers will run dry. And all their fresh water will be mixed with the salty water of the ocean. The ocean will be full of water but, being too salty, it will be fit neither for irrigation nor for drinking. The situation prevailing will be somewhat like that portrayed by Samuel Coleridge in his poem ‘The Ancient Mariner’: “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
Time reporting of a Study on melting of glaciers stated, “Glacier Loss Is 'Unstoppable.' The report elaborated on this saying, “The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the keys to global sea rise. Running up against the Amundsen Sea, it contains an estimated 27,808 cu. Miles (2.2 million cu. Km) of ice, about 10% of Antarctica’s total land ice volume. That’s enough ice to raise global sea level by more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) were it to melt, collapse and flow into the ocean, which in turn would swamp coastal cities as far inland as Washington D. C. And according to new research, that’s exactly what’s beginning to happen. (Bryan Walsh, Time, May 2014)
A study led by NASA Sea Level Change Science Team members from the University of Hawaii projects that there will be a surge in coastal flooding starting in 2030s. A report on NASA’s website states, “The global sea level rise causing higher seas amplified by the lunar cycle will cause a leap of flood numbers on almost all U.S. mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam.” (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/study-projects-a-surge-in-coastal-flooding-starting-in-2030s)
As a result every U.S coast will experience rapidly increasing high-tide floods, when a lunar cycle will amplify rising sea levels caused by climate change. This will result in floods the world over.
Devastating Floods Linked to Climate Change
As predicted floods have been seen worldwide. The autumn and summers of 2021 have witnessed ravaging and deadly floods, cyclones and hurricanes worldwide. Countries most effected by them include United States, Mexico, Germany, France, China, India, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of India, besides others, bringing in their wake widespread destruction.
Flash floods occurred in the city of New York in early July 2021. One of the 10 most intense cloud bursts in the past 80 years occurred here causing more than an inch and a half of rain to fall within an hour, causing severe damage and submerging parts of the city.
According to The Indian Express, China’s central Henan province witnessed its heaviest rainfall in 1000 years. According to The Indian Express, Officials have stated that Zhengzhou recorded 617.1 mm rainfall from Saturday to Tuesday, nearly the same as the annual average rainfall in the city (640.8 mm). According to the FloodList, in France, nearly two months of rain fell in just a few hours in Lot-et-Garonne Department in southwestern France late on 08 September 2021. Streets of the city of Agen were inundated with over 2 meters of water.
Devastation occurred in China in Zhengzho, the capital of the Henan province on Tuesday, 20 July 2021 due to flooding. In just one hour, a record 7.95 inches of rain fell between 4 and 5 pm, submerging cars, sweeping residents away and filling subway cars packed with commuters with gushing water that reached their necks.”
Devastating floods are seen worldwide, which are a direct result of global warming as warmer atmospheres retain more moisture that falls as heavy rains. These floods, climate scientists say should serve as a wake-up call for leaders to take urgent action on warming temperatures to protect the planet.
The widespread flooding in China is in part linked to climate change, said Xuebin Zhang, a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, noting, “We don’t usually see that kind of a flood.” He added, “Without the change in climate, you would not see as much precipitation as you see today. Simply because the air is now hotter and it can hold more moisture, as such it will give you more rain in intense storms than before.”
In India, the heaviest monsoon rains in decades took place in the Mumbai region. A weather station, in Mahabaleshwar recorded 23 inches of rainfall causing landslides and leaving entire neighborhoods submerged. (Reuters News Agency Report)
In western Germany and large parts of Europe, heavy floods wiped out villages and reduced some infrastructure to a sea of debris in July 2021. John Butschkowski, a Red Cross driver helping with the German rescue mission told Reuters, “It is inconceivable that this is happening in Germany.”
Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London, wrote for The Washington Post this week, “No one should assume that we can ever make our abodes completely fireproof, be ready to evacuate safely while being psychologically and financially prepared to return to only ashes. … We must plan better for floods and build our cities and communities to withstand them.”
These floods are a direct result of global warming as warmer atmospheres retain more moisture that falls as heavy rains.
These floods, climate scientists say should serve as a wake-up call for leaders to take urgent action on warming temperatures to protect the planet.
