An impossible world | THE COUNTRY America Colombia

You and I live in a world that is becoming impossible, even already impossible. Reading the news arriving from all corners of the planet announcing extreme situations as a consequence of the climate emergency is distressing: forest fires in Canada, temperatures of over 40° Celsius in Europe, drought in South America and even heavy rains felt in parts of Colombia anticipate the near future. A future where food, water and even housing will be scarce.

The high temperatures in southern Europe, in countries like Spain, Greece or Italy, seem to announce a process of desertification that could end up making these places almost uninhabitable in a century. The extreme weather conditions that can be expected, not only with very high but also very low temperatures, pose enormous challenges to these countries and their people. Although the most pessimistic are already talking about the possibility that the tragedy of climate displacement will be experienced in these places, that is, hundreds of thousands of people who will leave these regions in search of places where the climatic situation does not make it so difficult to lead a normal life.

The glaciers of the highest peaks on the planet are slowly running out of ice. Those we thought were inexhaustible sources of water will disappear in a few decades and in the Andes as in the Alps, the peaks are expected to soon be exposed to the sun with impacts as delicate as the rupture of surface rocks, previously protected by ice, and the resulting landslides and landslides.

A recent newspaper article Guardian He anticipated that, even if we succeed today in stopping all greenhouse gas emissions, it is now impossible to stop the rise in sea levels on the planet. In the most conservative scenario, coastal areas around the world (although there are places that will be more affected than others) will see sea levels rise by 50 centimeters by the end of the century. In the worst case, we would speak of an increase of 2 meters, that is to say the disappearance of entire cities.

The rains which could become more intense and above all more abundant will cause new emergencies due to landslides, avalanches and floods. Tropical countries like ours would be particularly affected by this situation, which should force us to take stock of the progress made in preventing emergencies by evacuating communities or entire populations that could be at risk. Was this task done well?

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There are still those who laugh at those of us who keep repeating that we are on our way to a world that will cease to be our home and become our torture. There are still those who think that everything that is happening is normal and that in a short time everything will return to normal. There are still those who believe that nothing should change because to jerk the wheel of the planet’s development path is to destroy humanity.

I tell them: with or without change, we are heading towards destruction. Whether it’s the economy, whether it’s the entire planet. We are all guilty of creating an impossible world for ourselves.

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Alvin Nguyen

"Amateur introvert. Pop culture trailblazer. Incurable bacon aficionado."

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