It was a fine winter morning, the author wished to write it so. But, no it was no more a fine winter morning. It was the hardest, coldest. No life escaped. Most of the plants were buried under the frost. There was no green except a small drop in the color palette of the artist in the city. The food that was consumed for ten thousand years now became lifeless. It is no more giving life to anyone on the planet. First time in human history 100% of the human population reported one or the other kind of food allergy. The genes have changed. The patient and careful evolution of nature for these many years are now helpless. Nothing is helping. Once, wheat which was the staple food for half of the world now became a weed. Everyone lost the ability to digest the protein. No, no soil is living anymore. Everything is bare, bare rock and stone.
This is not just another science fiction plot. This is not just an imagination of anxious individuals. This is real. This may sound unimaginable, and fictitious, but this will happen. It may take 50 years, 100 years, or even 250 years but no matter how many years it may be this will happen.
Alarming reports which have been snoozed indefinitely by us:
The recent IPCC report reads, "Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, beyond natural climate variability".
Global hotspots of high human vulnerability are found particularly in West-, Central- and East Africa, South Asia, Central, and South America, Small Island Developing States, and the Arctic. Vulnerability is higher in locations with poverty, governance challenges and limited access to basic services and resources, violent conflict, and high levels of climate-sensitive livelihoods (e.g., smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fishing communities).
The Arctic is melting as never before. Polar bears are losing their last home. The global temperature is rising, it is changing everything. There are many plants and animals losing their lives silently, they became the frontiers of this manmade attack. No climate change is not something happening because of normal changes in climate. The climate was never the same. Nature always had its own way of doing things. Climate has even changed before, but it was a decision by nature. It was an agreement, there was enough time for all the plants, animals, bacteria, algae, and sapiens to adapt themselves, to evolve themselves. They all had much room for them to think, adapt and grow.
But, what is happening today is completely different. None of us have time to adapt. Even nature itself is helpless. Changes are happening rapidly. We, humans, changed everything. Though this may be harsh, the truth is "If something is touched by humans, then the time clock starts, it starts to lose its life" We make everybody suffer.
The Love Story:
Nature has perfect harmony, when you look deep - there is this beautiful large yellow flower which is waiting to send its pollen, here comes the male bee which also wants to impress its female thus, it needs something to attract her. They both found a balance, the little male bee enters the pollen tube which has sticky-smelling liquid, and it goes through it and comes out, there all the pollens along with the liquid have stuck all over his body. The bee has got his smell to impress her girl and simultaneously the yellow flower has posted his pollen through this cute postman that nature created.
In another interesting place, the male yellow bird starts to sing, it dances finely to the tune of his music to impress her girl. This sound brightens up the entire forest. It brought light to the forest. Army of ants started their parade, the entire ground has been cleaned, bacteria and fungi started their decomposition, and the final end product becomes the most nourishing medium for the successive generations.
There exist another beautiful symbiotic relationship between Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) which includes seagrasses (e.g., eelgrass, surf grass) and kelps (e.g., giant kelp, bull kelp) which assimilate carbon dioxide from seawater into tissues via the process of photosynthesis, removing CO2 from the water.
There are many such relationships has been created by nature effortlessly all around the globe in the deepest woods. If something happens to one just one of the species then this beautiful intricate love story will be no more. In the words of Rachel Carson from the silent spring "In nature, nothing exists alone.”
Global warming, reaching 1.5°C in the near term, would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans which will create havoc and may disturb this beautiful harmony.
UN Climate Change warns that sea-level rise has exacerbated extreme events such as deadly storm surges and coastal hazards such as flooding, erosion, and landslides, which are now projected to occur at least once a year in many locations. Such events occurred once per century historically - This sea-level rise has the potential to completely massacre the relationship between the sea grasses and the CO2.
We all have a role, we all have a responsibility to protect these beautiful love stories. We can't be the reason for their suffering. We humans have so much knowledge only to protect them not to destroy them. This love story has to continue, we should never become the reason for their breakups.
None of us can afford such costly breakups. It has the potential to wipe out everything, this is more serious than atomic bombs, this more serious than those military guns. If we are not stopping today, sooner or later we will have nothing, no singing, no colors, no love, no generations, no dancing, nothing.
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
- Barack Obama, Former US President
So, now it is we who should take the decision. We can’t afford to remain a mute spectators. If we are trying to change today, though this may sound scary our future generations, may happen to suffer indiscriminately.
All of these worries and fear are not just based on the computer-based prediction models of climate change, but on much more valuable scientific evidence, satellite images, and various geographical and ecological studies.
“It’s important for me to have hope because that’s my job as a parent, to have hope, for my kids, that we’re not going to leave them in a world that’s in shambles, that’s a chaotic place, that’s a dangerous place.” - James Cameron, Film Director
Let us hope, that we the human race will overcome, and take steps to protect those intricate love stories, and thereby protecting them we will invariably also protect our future generations. And it does not always need great efforts, it could be as simple as writing, reading, or sharing about climate change and its impact. Slowly but steadily we can mitigate, and build a resilient future.