The most dangerous planet

Humanity doesn’t yet know if there’s intelligent life on other planets. With trillions possible worlds out there in the observable universe and many of them in the Goldilocks zone, chances are that life might have originated on other planets too and perhaps might have advanced to intelligent life also. However, given our limited knowledge about space, I am safely assuming that earth is perhaps the most dangerous planet.

There are strong indicators of this. While the hunter gatherer lived a dangerous life by living in the wilderness and being chased by dangerous predators, the smart man of today has invented such lethal means of destruction such as nuclear weapons and environmental degradation such as the addictive use of fossil fuel that life in the caves seems more intelligent and life in the wilderness seems much safer.

A new analysis published in the journal Advances In Atmospheric Sciences has stated that the year 2022 was the hottest for oceans. The heat that gets trapped in the atmosphere because of the carbon emissions causes global warming. More than 90% of the heat is absorbed by the oceans resulting in their degradation. Professor John Abraham of the University of St Thomas in Minnesota, who is also part of the team that conducted the analysis, said, “If you want to measure global warming, you want to measure where the warming goes, and over 90% goes into the oceans.”

And when it comes to oceans, they have one human feature: they are revengeful. The heat that the oceans take in is returned to the earth in the form of more intense precipitation, hurricanes, typhoons, higher moisture in air causing more intense rains and floods, and warmed waters expand pushing up the sea level. They return the heat back to the earth’s surface causing enormous devastation.

We have already seen the devastation caused by climate change. We witness these almost everyday. However, what takes my sleep at night is the thought about the time when oceans would die and stop absorbing the heat that we humans send their way which by the way is equivalent to all humans on earth running 40 hairdryers all day, everyday. That’s how much heat the oceans absorbed in 2022 alone.

Warmed water expands and pushes the sea level up threatening the coastal cities. Unusual precipitation causes floods, which results in weeds growing in places where there were none. Those weeds become perfect fuel for spreading wildfires when they come, which also result from excessive heat and dryness. So, while the hunter gatherer struggled with being chased by wild animals and ran to save his life, the modern man has more running to do.

If politics fail and global signals are misinterpreted, then the world will end with macho men unleashing nuclear weapons. If we don’t stop the use of fossil fuel, then the smart man will run from being engulfed by the wildfire, drowned by the rising sea, cooked by the heating planet, starved by the dwindling resources, flooded by the super floods, sickened by the bad air, and so forth.

About 2 years ago, California had wildfires and these were the ones close to the Beverly Hills area in Los Angeles. Several Hollywood celebrities fled their homes. They owned homes in Louisiana where some of them landed. Louisiana facing hurricanes and super floods is a news that comes almost every year. Those floods sometimes flood much of the entire state. These big stars with money wouldn’t be able to save themselves from the threats caused by climate change. They too with their houses and resources would be chased by both the wildfires in California and the floods of Louisiana. And they’d have nowhere to hide from the threats caused by climate change.

Between excessive heat, super floods, wildfires, and typhoons, life is much more precarious than it ever could have been.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2023.

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