If there’s a topic that makes people sigh it’s certainly global warming. On one side you have the ones who believe that it’s a conspiracy, and on the other side you have the ones who feel that it’s their duty to have a fight with all those who dare disagree with them. But regardless of whether you are on the side of the conspiracy theorists or have nothing better to do than have a fight for no reason, some scientists have claimed to have evidence which indicates that the world is actually heating up faster than anticipated.
To put this study into terms we all understand, it says that by 2050 the average temperature could have risen 3 degrees Celsius at the worst and 1.4 degrees Celsius at best. The shocking thing is that this is much higher than what previous studies have predicted. Obviously, we will never know whether these are stupid or smart figures until it actually happens, but it’s still a cause for concern.
The University of Oxford team led by Daniel Rowlands carried out the study, but even they acknowledged the massive amount of factors associated with predicting climate change. To name just a few factors, we have to take into account the impact of greenhouse gases, and the growth or reduction of said gasses in the future, the activity of the sun, atmospheric pollutants that can scatter light, and general heat transfer across land, sea, and air.
However, what does all this mean for us? Well this depends on if these results are true. As already mentioned, the amount of factors means that there is a high margin for error so this study could be just utter tripe for all we know. But if it’s true, which we will assume it is for now, then it means that the average temperature around the world will rise, which won’t be good for our rapidly growing population.
Yes, it’s a good thing if you love the sun and you want to get a tan, but the problem is that there will be less rain. And less rain means less water for the planet. Less water for the planet means drought in certain areas and more deaths. So it means that areas of the United Kingdom, some of which are already in drought, could face increasingly strict restrictions on the usage of water, and that’s inconvenient for all of us.
Furthermore, there will no doubt be an increase in taxes because we may be left with no option but to start purifying the water of the sea. This can be done and the salt can be removed to make sea water safe to drink, but the problem is that it’s quite an expensive process which is just not viable in the modern world economy. If it was then we would be pumping out sea water and sending it off to the third world, would we not?
Many of you may respond to all this information by saying that it doesn’t matter because we will all be dead or just too old to care. But the fact is that if all of these unfortunate things occur then our world will be changed forever. And if those figures are true then what’s to stop our laissez-faire attitude from speeding up the process again in the next few years? That’s the question, and even if there is a high margin of error when predicting these things, I wouldn’t like to take any chances.
