One of the main objectives of the Fairy Voices Movement is to inform fellow human beings about the concerns of fairies, the guardian spirits of nature, regarding the negatively changing climate and its impacts on every organism living here now or to come in the future. Here are some facts reported in the media about how the year 2021 has turned our worse fears into reality regarding climate change.
The weather extremities have broken all the records of past years in 2021. Hundreds of people have lost their lives to hurricanes and heatwaves. Farmers faced a hard time fighting against drought, and sometimes against the cicada plagues. While engulfing every forest, town, and house in the way, the wildfires have boosted the carbon excretion to its ever-high levels.
The negatively changing climate has contributed to such devastating events. The experts fear that the situation will still get worse in the coming decades.
February
Ø An intense coldwave struck the otherwise warm Texas, leaving 125 state citizens dead and causing millions to suffer in terribly low temperatures as a result of a power failure.
Ø An extreme weather condition was observed that brought record cold temperatures to a significant portion of Canada, the United States, and some parts of the northern Mexico during the first half of February 2021. It was likely caused by a sudden stratospheric warming.
Scientists are still not sure whether climate change has pushed weather to its extremes, however, the increasing temperatures in the Arctic are making unexpected changes in the global weather patterns.
Ø Kenya and other parts of Eastern Africa have struggled with the crop-killing insects for decades that were also ruining the grazing meadows for cattle. The plague was Kenya’s worst locust outbreak in over seventy years, affecting approximately 70,000 hectares (172,973 acres) of land.
Scientists opinionate that due to climate change, the unusual weather patterns have encouraged the growth of those harmful insects.
March
Ø In China, the worst sandstorm of history hit the capital Beijing, turning the blue sky into orange. Flights had to be grounded due to dusty clouds that were at least 100 meters high. The issue has been compounded since the 1950s due to widespread deforestation and soil erosion. The forests on the border with Mongolia were cut down, which previously provided protection against sand from the Gobi Desert.
Many volunteer farmers come every year to plant trees in the Gobi desert that may stabilize the soil and act as a wind buffer. Scientists predict that hotter summers and dry winters are continuously lowering the moisture levels that can make drylands incapable of any biological production.
June
Ø The worst drought, starting at the beginning of 2020, has engulfed almost all the Western U.S. The Hoover Dam reservoir reached its lowest levels, forcing farmers to abandon their crops. The government announced emergency measures.
The US government has linked the drought to climate change and confirmed that during the last 20 months, there was far less rain in the Southwest.
Ø Hundreds of precious lives were lost in U.S. and Canadian Pacific Northwest due to record-breaking heatwave.
Scientists agree that such an immense rise in temperatures happened solely because of weather variations. The hot temperature melted the power cables and cracked the roads. The administration tried to help the public by opening cooling centers.
Ø In Portland, Oregon, an all-time high temperature of 116 Fahrenheit (46.7 Celsius) was recorded.
This alarming occurrence would have been 150 times less likely if people had not altered the climate to the extent that they have.
July
Ø More than 300 causalities were noted in central China’s Henan province as a result of destructive flooding.
Scientists have concluded that climate changes have increased the risks of floods up to 20 percent.
Ø Record heatwaves and drought caused two large-scale wildfires in California and Oregon. Those were the worst miseries in the history of the US West.
Scientists say that both the frequency and intensity of wildfires are linked to prolonged drought and unusually hot temperatures.
Ø Large areas of the southern US are experiencing prolonged drought.
Ø Chile is suffering from a decade-long mega-drought that is believed to be linked to global warming.
Ø Meanwhile, Brazil has witnessed one of its driest years in a century.
Ø South America’s second-longest river, Parana in Argentina, has decreased to its lowest level since 1944.
Without any exception, the whole globe is experiencing an increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves.
August
Ø Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes in Algeria, Greece, and Turkey when a warm and dry summer with blazing wind struck the Mediterranean.
Ø The fires, which killed two people in Greece and at least 65 in Algeria, struck amid an intense heatwave, with some places in Greece recording temperatures of over 46 Celsius (115 Fahrenheit).
Ø In Greece and Algeria, more than 50 people died in the middle of a severe heatwave, causing temperatures to rise to over 46 Celsius (115 Fahrenheit).
Ø By the end of August, almost all mountain glaciers around the world have fallen back due to global warming.
Ø In the Alps, Swiss resort employees put protective blankets over one of Mount Titlis’s glaciers to preserve the leftover ice. The officials fear that Switzerland, which has already lost 500 of its glaciers, could lose the remaining 90% of the 1,500 by the end of the century.
Ø According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, hurricane Ida that struck Louisiana as a Category 4 storm, caused nearly 100 deaths and estimated damage of $64 billion in the US. The hurricane, after entering the inland, caused heavy rains resulting in flash flooding across the densely populated Northeast and adding more to causalities.
Climate change has reinforced hurricanes, making them more prolonged over a land. Studies also suggest these stormy rains are getting more frequent in the North Atlantic.
September
Ø In Russia, the underground permafrost has been melting and deforming the land, damaging the infrastructure and homes built upon it. Permafrost was once considered a reliable construction base.
Ø The rapidly melting permafrost of Siberia is altering the landscape.
According to scientists, the permafrost is thawing as the Earth’s climate warms. That is, the ice within the permafrost melts, leaving water and soil behind.
November
Ø About 780,000 people were affected in South Sudan due to the worst floods in 60 years. The flooding has set records for three years in a row and will likely increase with the rise in temperatures.
Ø In the Canadian province of British Columbia, a mighty storm poured a month’s worth of rain in just two days, unleashing floods and mudslides that destroyed roads, railroads, and bridges. It was perhaps the most expensive natural disaster in Canada’s history and its damages are still under assessment. According to Meteorologists, the rain had come from an atmospheric river, or a stream of water vapor stretching hundreds of miles long from the tropics.
Doomsday in Next 5 Years!
The thwaites glacier in western Antarctica, sometimes referred as the “Doomsday Glacier”, is rapidly disintegrating, and new study from the icy continent shows that the diminishing glacier may face doomsday in the next 5 years. If Thwaites breaks up entirely and releases all its water into the ocean, there will be a rise in global sea-level.
One other dreadful possibility is that there might be unknown deadly viruses stored in the ice that could be unleashed as the glaciers deteriorate and melt. In two approximately 15,000-year-old ice cores, a scientist team has uncovered 28 new viruses. These viruses have survived because they were trapped in ice. Nobody knows how much havoc these viruses can cause to a world that is already struggling with Coronavirus.
Awareness is the Key
It is evident that climate change is posing a threat to human well-being and civilization as well as to ecosystems and animal life. The situation demands immediate attention from the inhabitants of planet earth. Only a raised consciousness has a chance to prevent the great destruction that is knocking at our doors.
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