More often than not, scientific discoveries are a source of jubilance and awe. We might hear that a certain disease now has a cure, or scientists have made a major breakthrough in technology which can help us improve our lives by a huge margin. Only recently, we heard of a new test that was discovered which we could use to spot cancer within 10 minutes. If that’s not enough, the huge strides we’re making in the realm of Artificial Intelligence is said to completely revolutionize the entire globe.
However, not all news is good news, and 2018 was the year that had us worry about some glaring details which no one seemed to be talking about. There were climate disasters that left hundreds of thousands of people worse off than they were before the year started, and the worst part is that there are no signs that things are going to get better in 2019! We can only hope that global warming and its effects slow down – however, right now, things are simply not looking good.
With that being said, here are some of the most worrisome news that dominated 2018, and you’ll probably have difficulty believing these!
The Oceans Are Heating Up
This is worse than you could possibly imagine. While we, at the surface of the earth, experience changing weather all the time due to unique elemental conditions like volcanic explosions or cyclones, the oceans are pretty much stationary, and the heat they trap doesn’t really escape. There is pretty much nothing we can do about this either since we’d have to eradicate global warming completely, and that’s not something we look like we’ll be able to do even 10 years from now. Meanwhile, our oceans are warming up continually every year, and the rate at which they’re warming up is astronomical.
Just 5 years ago, scientists tried projecting what ocean warming data might look like, but now it seems that their estimates were off, and we’re currently facing the earth’s bodies of water heating up 40% faster than scientists initially calculated. The reason we don’t feel too warm is that most of the world’s global warming, 93% to be exact, is happening within our oceans. This means the melting of our poles will not only lead to the extinction of certain marine animals but will also result to a tremendous rise in the water level globally, leading to greater devastation caused by tsunamis, floods, and hurricanes. The steadily increasing rise in the oceans’ temperatures means that jellyfish, those that thrive in warm water, are reproducing at alarming rates! Polar bears have decreased in number due to starvation, and coral reefs have lost their luster and are slowly dying as well.
Wildlife Is Dying Mysteriously
We don’t really know what the main causing factor is, but wildlife — birds specifically — are behaving very abnormally. Other than that, we’ve had abnormalities within the realms of sea life and insects as well. The problem is that we’re seeing deaths of many species in unprecedented numbers. We’re talking about millions of fish, insects, and birds dying overnight for apparently no reason whatsoever. The whole issue has an eerie feel to it because experts can’t really pinpoint what the heart of the problem is. Many people are pointing toward global warming, saying that it’s to blame for these mishaps. It’s been recorded that bats are forced to drop dead due to immense heatwaves which basically fry their brains, so it’s not too outlandish to think that rising temperatures might be the cause behind so much death in the wild. As much as 76% of flying insects in German preserves have died out, and we can only guess at what the worldwide numbers are, but the closest estimates we have is that almost half of them are now gone.
Global Weather Is Getting Worse
In case you haven’t noticed, the weather is getting more and more freakishly destructive with every passing year. Scientists have compared it to water, saying that more heat causes it to become active and boil. Similarly, our planet is experiencing an increased rate of extreme weather activities like storms, hurricanes, and wildfires which have affected millions worldwide. This is projected to only get worse in the upcoming years before things get better.
There’s still hope, though. If we can reduce our carbon footprint to a desired level within a decade, we could still preserve our world as it is. While it’s impossible to see results immediately, we should still change our ways because, after all, the earth is the only home we have.
