We are running out of time.
How would humanity react to an alien landing on earth
Freedom is not a concept or an idea. It is an experience. Therefore, it must be realized in its entirety. At least it should be. Should they take it from us, humanity?
Not so far into the future, it could be possible that an intervention takes place, from visitors. Alien visitors will create what they deem as their ideal society, a society that will enslave humanity. By manipulating our leaders, both political and religious, and with genetic engineering, brainwashing, cross-breeding, and enslavement, it is feasible that the Vintage Huxley novel, ‘Brave New World’, could end up becoming a reality.
Great Waves of Change are now converging upon the entire human family, creating a situation unprecedented in human history. With this change comes the already growing problem of human-enhanced climate change. A change in climate brings violent weather, declining energy resources, declining food production, pandemic disease and the growing threat of competition and war over the world's control of the world for remaining water and remaining resources. The earth will experience immense instability around and throughout, with the wealthy nations being affected too. This will be a time when a great decision must be made whether humanity will unite and cooperate to share with each other or propel itself into a state of permanent decline. Whereas many communities and even certain nations may collapse, many will have to migrate, leading to a great shift in the order and function of civilisation.
It is a fact that very few of us amongst humanity are aware of any extra-terrestrial presence in our world. Those that do are doing so in secret and are blind to the fact that these visitors are staging an intervention. An intervention that is a danger and inevitably the end of humanity as we know it.
Now is the time for humanity to grow up and cease its desperate struggles and its adolescent indulgences. For we are now to join, emerge and become part of a Greater Community of intelligent life. A life where humanity must be strong and united, self-sufficient and extremely discreet if we are to remain a free race. Freedom is a rare commodity in the universe, and the visitors care not for ours nor our differences from each other. To them, we humans are all the same.
Within us all, God has placed a gift of knowledge, an inner knowing which will enable those of us that are strong enough to make wise decisions. This gift from God is to help the individual evaluate problems. At a time when humanity stands at a juncture where it must choose whether to fight for its freedom. Fight from intervention from superior races from the Greater Community. To stand facing our declining world and weather the Great Waves of Change, and to build a new future for the human family and preserve our natural world for future generations.
Just a thought!
If we are to believe NASA, evidence of extra-terrestrial life has not to date been discovered. The latest geological robot sent to Mars in February 2021 has been successfully gathering data, but still no signs of any past or present life. Even microbial life would be a step in that direction, right?
With decades of scientists and film directors dedicating tremendous efforts to speculate about two main issues concerning E.T. intelligent life forms. Do they exist? What would happen if they came to visit Earth? Either way, it is clear from Hollywood there is not too much faith that humans would treat aliens with the respect that perhaps they deserve.
When you look at our history of affording human rights to the inhabitants of this planet, let alone other sentient beings, this is hardly surprising. In most of our films, the E.T. is invariably cast as a second-class citizen, certainly less than human. They would be on that vivisection table faster than you could say E.T. go home. It would be wise for our world leaders like the U.N. to observe moral laws amidst an alien invasion should we try to persuade them to act similarly with captured humans, be they P.O.W. or civilians — based on hopeful reciprocity of social behaviour.
With the probable possibility that we do eventually encounter alien life, it seems fair that we should seriously consider how we might react to them. Especially when you consider an intelligent species that may differ greatly from our own. But also, far more advanced with telepathic communication, mind manipulation, and superior technology. After all, are the visitors friendly or hostile toward humankind and earth's creatures? Are they here to offer help or to conquer our planet to add to their intergalactic empire?
When we glance back through our history and how we treated each other, we see slavery, the Irish potato famine killed 1 million, the Indian Bengal famine killed 4 million, and 6 million Jews died during the holocaust to name only a few. It is safe to assume that humans do not portray a very positive picture of their existence with each other, with our lack of moral virtue, discipline with our human civilisation, and lack of legal community.
Invasion or Intervention
It may surprise the reader that there was a granting of inalienable, universal rights — that is, the rights guaranteed to all people no matter what — were enshrined by the international community into law through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 after the horrors of World War 2. But what of the visitor's rights? What legal issues may arise through close contact of a third kind with human civilisation? This includes trade and treaty contracts, but more importantly, the legal perspective of the art of war.
But then, what if the aliens travel to Earth to find some treaty agreement on behalf of their space federation? Would Earth's existing provisions of the Vienna Convention on law treaties and principles of the charter of the United Nations be observed or even apply to them in any way? Then there is SETI the non-governmental institute, which has prepared protocols for any ETI Signal Detection concerning E.T. contact.
There is a provision in place that expressly prohibits countries from contacting aliens unilaterally or secretly without international consultations, which is an implicit reaffirmation of the leading role of the United Nations with the secretary general, in particular in handling the contacts.
If aliens can make it to earth, perhaps it is not their rights we should concern ourselves with, but our own. If technologically advanced aliens have come to Earth as invaders, the potential devastation and causalities would be unimaginable, so you see the art of war, that is the rules of war, to us may not matter to them.
I should point out that the visitors may have international galactic laws of their own. Like many of our competitors here on Earth, aware of these laws but often break them, regardless.
For example, what if the visitors were not supposed to be visiting Earth in secrecy? What if their space laws state that humanity needs to know totally that an intervention is being offered on the table? Totally aware of the facts, and totally on board with it all. What if their underhanded visit here on Earth, and secret dealings with people in power, were all a ruse to gain power over humans and the Earth, without our having the facts? What if we had rights? Stand up and say no thank you and their galactic laws clearly state to them, they are to back out now. Already, we have Earth laws being broken by interacting secretly with aliens, which is internationally prohibited. Then the universal laws are broken by the aliens, not letting humanity know why they are truly here.
How would this affect people’s faith?
The Copernican heliocentric theory, founded in 1510 the revolution that laid the groundwork for scientists, to claim that planet Earth is a typical planet around a typical star in a typical galaxy — that we are not that special after all. We are not, in fact, the crowning glory of God’s creation, but are just one in billions upon billions of planets with life in the many billions of galaxies out there. Basically, we aren’t that special after all, just a narcissistic race that thinks we are.
Would the discovery of intelligent aliens create a Copernican effect on the human race and their self-understanding of who we are and where we came from? Surely the discovery of intelligent life in the universe in their billions would lead people to feel insignificant, and as a result, cause people to question their faith?
Surely humanity should consider that intelligent life may have already reached earth, visited, and departed over many decades, many times. Maybe intelligent alien life is already here on earth, building relations with our prime leaders or those in religious authority. Maybe extra-terrestrials that are far more advanced than us have been coveting earth and its resources, secretly watching Earth's evolution for millions of years, and waiting as humanity slowly depletes its own resources, and destroys its sentient beings and each other. Watching as we fight over tribal gods and deities, competing over kingdoms, land, access, water, oil, human rights and revolutions, food, space, and worse still, religion. With these billions of potential receptacles for life existing out there in space, it is only logical that at least one of them is inhabited, and maybe the inhabitants want what we have.
Maybe they are planning an intervention, planning a ruse to take control of our world right under our noses. Would it be so difficult? Manipulate the right power-hungry leaders in the right powerful places and parts of the world. Gain some religious authority with the right power-hungry leading religions, while humanity carries on in total oblivion with their heads in their mobile devices, believing what the propaganda news throws out daily. With the current state of Earth in the year 2023, it has never been easier for a planet take over. We are all so busy being blind-sighted by media, with half the planet being manipulated by greed and capitalism materialism, and the other half trying to take over the world through totalitarianism.
Would it really be so difficult for an intelligent E.T. far more advanced than humanity to come to Earth unannounced, in secret having spied on us for a millennium, watching us as we grow becoming more established, less barbaric, just establishing the right time to intervene? Could it be that we humans are still in a state of immaturity, adolescence in the eyes of our spies, still tribal, fighting over different gods, beliefs, cultures, and political views? Destroying everything in our way, using up and polluting the water reserves, ruining the agricultural land, exterminating our ecosystems and wildlife, and contaminating our planet as we self-destruct.
With parts of the planet left resembling the film Water World, then the other parts resembling Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome. Water scarcity, food scarcity, ocean pollution with no marine life left, land baron, mass displacement, and overpopulation even though millions have died through countries becoming uninhabitable due to heat. Decease, famine, hunger, homelessness, poverty, and war throughout the world. Prices are driven sky high for wheat and water, as new diseases arrive from the melting permafrost and breeding ground for more pandemics.
Could it be possible that several breeds of E.T.’s are already here on Earth, gathering information on us, waiting for the opportunity for an intervention? An intervention to take over humanity’s control of Earth, save what they can for their own personal gain for their homes. Exploit those they manipulated with the promised power while turning our world into a regime of totalitarianism. A planet that resembles George Orwell's 1984 and a Vintage Huxley Brave New World. People will have no rights to speak, to choose, breed, work, create, read, write, or wear what they want. The E.T.’s will have a world monopoly on communication with censorship, all-seeing Telescreens with the watchful eye. They will alter even our DNA as they create the new highbred human that will be compliant, docile, obedient, willing to serve, to be slaves. Humanity will have no freedom.
Induction on the facts of climate change
There can be no more denying or hiding from the fact that Global warming is supercharging extreme weather at an astonishing speed affecting millions of lives throughout the planet. With evidence—based analysis from NASA since the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact.
Earth’s climate has changed throughout history; however, the current warming rate has not been witnessed in over 10,000 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chane (IPCC) state that with unequivocal evidence human activity is the cause of current accelerated climate change. With scientific information taken from natural sources such as ice cores, rocks, tree rings, permafrost, and ocean samples, this can no longer be denied.
Global warming is the slow increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. This is because of an increased amount of heat striking the earth from the sun, then becoming trapped in the atmosphere and not radiated back out into space. The earth’s atmosphere has always acted as a greenhouse, capturing the sun’s heat, ensuring temperature remains at a certain level allowing the emergence of life forms as we now know. So, think of global warming as the equivalent of a greenhouse with its reflective glass installed the wrong way around.
To exasperate the problem, we are destroying our natural ecosystems for absorbing the C02 from the atmosphere. As we burn our many rain forests, just one of Earth’s natural ecosystems to the ground, not only do we rape the planet of its natural lungs, but we also release the trapped carbon the trees have absorbed back into the atmosphere, trebeling! the existing problem. Today a 3rd of our emissions of C02 is from deforestation burning. So, this large-scale destruction wrought by humans is indeed messing with the natural order and affecting the climate of our planet and home.
The effects of climate change on society and individuals are wide-ranging and potentially severe. Some of the impacts include:
1. Rising temperatures melting the ice caps causing sea levels to rise, which can result in more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, and hurricanes, as well as coastal flooding and erosion of our coral reefs.
2. Changes in precipitation patterns, can lead to water scarcity in some areas and increased risk of wildfires and floods in others.
3. Loss of biodiversity, as many species are unable to adapt to changing conditions and may become extinct.
4. Disruptions to agriculture and food production, which can lead to food shortages and higher food prices, starvation, and war.
5. Human health impacts, including increased air pollution, the spread of disease by insects, and harm to mental health.
6. The loss of the world's ecosystems, forests, swamps, plains, lakes, oceans, and other natural ecosystems as they disappear through over-harvesting for human consumption or are cleared to make way for agriculture, housing, roads, and other human development.
7. Constant threat of war as the great rivers become dammed, polluted, drained through overuse for irrigation, or dry up altogether. (Already taking place)
8. The movement of the plates causes volcanoes and mountains to form contributing to a change in the climate.
9. The oceans warming up as they absorb the increasing C02 that humans are creating in the atmosphere. This in turn means as the oceans warm up, they will eventually absorb less C02 and will start to re-release C02 back into the atmosphere making temperatures rise even more. This is known as feedback a positive is a way of slowing down, and a negative is speeding up. This has been negative.
10. Less plant coverage on the earth's surface as plants as well as trees, take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through stomata in their leaves (their pores) known as photosynthesis. Agricultural, building and the clearance of marshlands, meadows, and land, in general, have had negative feedback.
11. The melting of Permafrost releases Methane a greenhouse gas stronger than C02
12. Ice sheets melting, ice caps, and burgs melting raising sea levels destroying ports and taking back the land all over the world. ( Louisiana in the USA loses land the size of a football pitch every 45 minutes.)
13. The clearing of rainforests for the breeding of more cattle brings more Methane, cattle, goats, and sheep eat grass and produce Methane a greenhouse gas three times more potent than C02.
To mitigate the effects of climate change, it is necessary to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, shift to renewable energy sources, and implement measures to adapt to the impacts that are already being felt. This can include transitioning to low—carbon transportation, promoting energy efficiency, and protecting and restoring natural carbon sinks such as forests, melting permafrost and phytoplankton. Phytoplankton plays the important role of performing photosynthesis to convert the sun’s rays into energy that then takes in carbon dioxide that produces oxygen. So, you see the importance of these God-given sink tanks that we are destroying. It is difficult to determine a specific timeline for when things could get out of control, as it depends on a variety of factors including the rate of emissions reductions and the effectiveness of adaptation measures. However, it is widely acknowledged that immediate and sustained action is necessary to avoid the worst-case scenarios and ensure a stable and liveable future. Unless humanity moves now and fast toward zero, then the negative impact of this climate change that we are witnessing today will quadruple for the next generation. Even if there are those that still do not recognize this as an existential threat to humanity. Surely, they realize it will create unmountable problems for those already suffering in the poorer regions. Plus, it does not bode well for the future generations of all sentient species that wish to remain on this planet.
With 17% of the rainforest been deforested for cattle ranches, soy farms, logging, mines, and dams, much of which is illegal, (Palmolive oil being the most destructive) During 2021, environmentalists claim about 95% of these areas were destroyed without a permit. Previous formal government officials such as President Jair Bolsonaro’ of Brazil who according to ‘Amazon and Biomass research groups state was responsible for two billion trees in the Brazilian Amazon being burned to the ground. Fewer trees mean less rain, higher temperatures, and the enhancement of drought in Brazil. This is not good for the growing or exporting of crops. Already Brazil has been subject to this as the Parana River Basin has suffered a drought since 2021, causing 40 million people across Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay to go without food, freshwater supplies, and the negative effect of no hydropower generation.
Since 1978 about one million square kilometres of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana.
With no genuine compassion, real comprehension or realization, there is no hope for any positive progress to slow down this human-made disaster. Gadgets, technology, prayer, or the Chinese will not save our lives or our planet. But it is possible outside intervention will. It is just a matter of how it comes about. Will we as a human race endure, and will we cease our endless conflicts, unify, and save ourselves and our planet from outside intervention and subsequent self-destruction?
Earth's temperature has been on the rise since the Industrial Revolution. It is now clear that although natural variants play some part in this temperature rise, the scientific evidence clearly indicates that human activities — particularly that of Carbon Dioxide that is been trapped in the Earth's atmosphere and warming it up, far faster than natural evolution would. According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientists and their ongoing analysis, the average global temperature on Earth has increased by at least 1.1 Celsius since 1880, with the majority of the warming has occurred since 1975.
According to Roger Hallam Brussels 2021, the climate crisis is not to do with the climate and it is not a crisis. It is a crisis for the human race, the end of the world. Leading scientists have told this man that at the Paris conference in 2015, there was not one leading scientist that agreed it was possible to stay under 1.5 celsius. That time has gone, and physics states this around the world. Top scientists around the world are not wishing to rock the political boat because of the money that is being made. Capitalism breeds extinction, it is a collective activism problem where these people making money do not want to reform. Capitalism which is criticized for establishing power in the hands of a minority. The same capitalist class that often exists through the exploitation of a working-class majority; for prioritizing profit over social good, natural resources and the environment; and for being an engine of inequality and economic instabilities.
A paper called ‘The future of the human niche’ written by a leading world-class scientist has written that because of 2 degrees celsius that one thousand million people will live in areas that are uninhabitable in approximately 15 years times. Social collapse is inevitable with the absence of climate mitigation or human migration, the temperature experienced by an average human is projected to change more in the coming decades than it has over the past six millennia. Compared with the preindustrial situation 300 y BP, the mean human-experienced temperature rise by 2070 will amount to an estimated 7.5 °C, about 2.3 times the mean global temperature rise, a discrepancy that is largely due to the fact that the land will warm much faster than the oceans but also amplified somewhat by the fact that population growth is projected to be predominantly in hotter places. (The future of the human niche, 2022, P2)https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1910114117
Totaleterisum 2 + 2 = 5 George Orwell, people believe what they want to believe. Not always the truth.
As custodians of this planet, we cannot afford to be in denial or avoidance, pretend or presume others will take positive control offsetting this disaster. We must act now, and be honest with ourselves and with each other. We must learn to communicate amongst ourselves cease our tribal allegiances, and stop the skirmishes, wars, greed, oppression, and economical control over the existing water. A decision on how to provide support for vulnerable countries concerning future loss and damage is vital. We must support one another by taking the steps to produce, manage, and then make available the much-needed resources to meet each other’s needs.
With 828 million people going to bed hungry every night, the number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared — from 135 million to 345 million — since 2019.
There are 49 million people in 49 countries that are teetering on the edge of famine. We lose one-third of food produced for human consumption globally. This amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. All the food produced but never eaten would feed two billion people. That’s more than twice the number of undernourished people across the world. The WFP (World Food Programme) has stated; “If wasted food were a country, it would be the third-largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world”. This would be after the USA and China.
Already there is disruption all over the planet, with extensive regions struggling to produce food both for themselves and for export. Climate change can disrupt food availability and reduce access to food and affect food quality. Projected increases in temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, changes in extreme weather events and reductions in water availability may all result in reduced agricultural productivity. When countries stop exporting food, it can make global hunger far worse. Trade is vital to mitigating the global food crisis.
However, while outcomes are context-dependent, and confounding social, cultural, and political considerations are always present, a range of analyses suggests that changes in climatic conditions can exert enough stress to trigger migration part of which can take the form of asylum-seeking waves in response to climate-driven conflicts. We only need to look at the drought in Syria where human-induced climate change continues to be a major factor in the ongoing Syrian conflict. With large scale-scale migration and displacement.
Other countries that rely on the import of food will suffer through the crisis of the exporting country. Along with chronic poverty, conflict and economic shocks, food loss is one of the root causes of hunger worldwide. Food loss also represents a waste of the very resources used to produce food — such as land, water, and energy.
Climate change will affect every country in the world. Its impact felt differently across all regions, some being hit much worse than others. It is because of this that it’s so difficult to measure the impact of climate change. Scientists cannot be completely accurate about the impact climate change will have on populations because of the many variables.
These include levels of poverty, resource availability, civil wars, and religious strife within certain regions. We can be sure, though, that nations with less effective and less competent governments will be at the gravest risk and that levels of inequality across the world are, and will continue to be, the greatest factor.”
“There is enough food for everyone in the world,” but the issue is about distribution. “In our world of plenty, I will never accept the death from the hunger of a single child, woman or man.
“When war is waged, people go hungry”.
(Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations)
60 Per cent of the world’s undernourished people live in areas affected by conflict. In 2021, most of the 140 million people suffering acute hunger lived in just ten countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of The Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Even before the Ukraine crisis struck, the world was already facing a food crisis due to, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. Over several years, the number of people falling into starvation has rocketed from 80 million to 323 million, with 49 million. at risk of famine in 43 countries.
Ukraine provides food for 400 million people, so an invasion by its neighbouring Russia, creates market volatility. The United Nations is trying to get ports running again — with 36 countries importing over 50 per cent of their grain from that region.
Failure to open the ports in the Odessa region is a declaration of war on global food security, which could cause famines, political destabilization, and mass migration around the world. Even those not directly involved in any conflict still pay the price of war, the conflict in Ukraine puts Pakistanis at risk of going hungry, as this country relies heavily on wheat and fertilizer from that region.
Then there are the drought conditions for wheat, which are now the worst in over 20 years; even major breadbaskets such as the United States and Brazil, the world’s two largest exporters of agricultural produce, are also experiencing extreme droughts. The effect of climate change particularly affects developing countries, hit hardest because they are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of climate hazards and have lower coping capacity. Eight out of the ten countries most affected by the quantified effects of extreme weather events belong to the low to lower-middle-income category.
Without our world leader and national government collectively taking immediate aggressive and coordinated global action, we are at great risk of an extraordinary amount of human suffering worldwide. With the climate disruptions, lack of fertilizer and record low inventories of cooking oils and grains, there are already signs of logistical bottlenecks, unravelling decades of global economic progress with fertilizer price tripling. This is thanks to restrictions on natural gas which affects the ability to produce fertilizer.
With climate change affecting USA and Brazil's wheat production, the world’s two largest exporters of agricultural products are experiencing extreme droughts which are severely impacting global food security and inflation. This is just the beginning of what awaits humanity as we succumb to the great waves of change, as the earth as we know it slowly tries to adapt to the tragic state of artificial evolution brought on by humanity's greed and lack of empathy towards God's other creations.
Climate change is real, the effects are already generating billions of economic losses around the world. We have everything we need to reverse the problem. Solar power, wind power, nuclear power, hydropower, and some of our leading inventors working on other tools right now. The Paris agreement is proof that global cooperation is possible, it is now a matter of those in a position of power acting and deploying the agreement.
Electricity consumption accounts for more than three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions. While manufacturing steel and concrete is responsible for a vast amount of these emissions, it is clear how much most of the planet relies on electricity. With the flick of a switch, the vast majority of the planet can receive light, and power for the toaster, hair dryer or tv, very cheaply. So as electricity is a major contributor to the climate problem, it is clear that financing a massive deployment of cheap electricity is critical if we are to avoid a climate disaster.
It might surprise the reader to know that the making of electricity accounts for just over a quarter of all emissions. However even though electricity is only 26 per cent of the problem, it will be far more than this that goes toward the solution. For if we were able to create clean electricity then we could cease burning hydrocarbons (this admits carbon dioxide). This would not just be for our cars, and home gadgets, this would be providing clean electricity for current energy-intensive factories all over the world. It is one-fifth of the world's carbon emission that comes from the manufacturing and production sectors.
Try as one might, it is extremely difficult to escape the carbon footprint. Your toothbrush, the clothes, and shoes you send your kids to school in, the vacuum, the hairbrush the cooking utensils you use, are all manufactured in a large carbon-driven factory. With 54 per cent of the world's energy sources being produced by production worldwide, it is vital that manufacturing companies address their decarbonization options urgently.
So, if we are to give up coal, oil, and natural gas, where will our clean electricity come from? Electricity is cheap, and the share of global power that comes from burning coal (roughly 40 per cent) hasn’t changed in 30 years. Oil and natural gas together have been around 26 per cent for three decades. Fossil fuels provide two-thirds of the world’s electricity. Solar and wind, however, 9 per cent.
Since 2019 236 gigawatts’ of coal plants have been built around the world, with coal and natural gas now being the fuel of choice. This is especially prevalent in developing countries where demand has gone through the roof in the past decades. China currently been the biggest producer of coal on the planet and tripling its use of coal power thus driving down the cost of a coal plant by 75 per cent. They are now moving to attract new developing countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and developing nations.
Africa particularly wishes to leapfrog into the renewable energy age as cheaply as possible — as it was with the cellular phone.
With off-grid solar power having attracted investors such as Siemens, and Schneider Electric to invest in Africa. Tens of billions have shown what is possible in this critical step toward clean electricity through this economic advancement. With these existing financial incentives already in place and RESPITE providing benefits that spill over and complement existing regional integration within the energy sector, proving that with communication that lacks competition all things are possible.
The World Bank states that more than 700,000 solar systems have already been installed in Sub- Saharan Africa and are to reach 56 million new customers by 2023. This is a triumphant positive step for humanity and the race against climate change to reach a zero-carbon footprint. With the number of climate-related disasters globally having doubled since the 1990s and the UN reporting that in the last ten years, climate-related disaster has on average affected 16 million people and caused billions more in eco-damages. This can only be a good leap for humanity.
However, with nearly 733 million people worldwide, still living without any electricity and as progress currently stands, 670 million will remain without by 2030. That means 2.6 billion people still cook or heat their homes with polluting fuels harming their health and that of the environment. Renewable energy can help countries, and solar and wind technologies could be game changers for many of these poorer developing countries. With solar and wind being abundant, cost competitive. The problem is land space and battery storage. The cost of battery or energy storage via hydrogen is gigantic not to mention the space, safety, and security. There would be a great need for discussions of how electricity storage must evolve as plans for variable renewable energy evolves.
We can expect that future electric power generation in the UK will be based on variable renewables. This will be primarily wind and solar, possibly supported by nuclear. Unlike fossil fuel and nuclear generation, such renewables will, by their very nature, often produce less power than required — an extreme case is the lack of solar electricity generated at night. One of the biggest challenges for renewables will therefore be to deal with the periods when “the Sun doesn’t shine, and the wind doesn’t blow”. Then there are the already negative effects of climate damage, such as the horrific drought in Brazil causing the Parana River Basin to cease being able to provide hydropower since 2021. They do not possess energy-charged batteries with a backup supply of electricity. Deforestation in Brazil for soy cultivation and cattle ranching contributed to half of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions to date (2023). Could this already be tree cover loss in the Amazon triggering negative agriculture climate consequences?
Because the Earth has been tilted by approximately 23.5 degrees, there are countries such as Norway that receive 6 months of the day followed by 6 months of night. How would solar power without backup storage of electricity work for such countries? With net-zero carbon targets requiring almost all energy to be provided by renewable electricity. It would be clear that for our planet to go zero-carbon it is essential we find cheap, safe, and secure storage for clean electricity (renewable energy) which to date has been largely neglected by our governments around the world.
Climate Change and Fire
Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires not only in California but all over the world. Out of the twenty largest fires in California, eight have occurred in the past three years (since 2017) with the August Complex Fire now being the largest recorded wildfire in California. More than 9,600 wildfires burned nearly 4.2 million acres through mid-December, causing more than 30 fatalities and causing destruction for nearly 10,500 structures. Although human-caused fires are also on the rise at the edge of wildland areas, increasing opportunities for both accidental and intentionally set wildfires. Wildfires release carbon emissions affecting climate and driving climate-related events that contribute to yet more wildfires. With dry fuels combusting more easily and thus flaming during droughts, the specific type of emissions produced is more toxic than that of the smouldering carbon emissions released. These carbon emissions affect climate change driving up the climate change-related events that contribute to more wildfires, as dry fuels combust more easily causing more likely flames. An example is Global Fire Emissions Database shows that the California wildfires in 2020 generated more than 91 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. This is 30 million metric tons more carbon dioxide emissions than the state emits annually from power production.
U.S. Western wildfires play an important role in the ecosystem they are necessary for clearing the forest floor of dead organic material, allowing sunlight to reach it, adding nutrients to the soil, and killing infestations and decease. However, when this is disturbed by an outbreak of climate change wildfires on an immense scale it throws the natural order out of sync. This leads to the loss of some forests, as climate change increases the frequency of fires making it harder for ecosystems to re-establish. With the major disturbance from droughts and back-to-backfires, we are starting to see forests in Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho turn into prairies and grasslands. Ecosystems are changing if they are not been destroyed altogether.
This is not just limited to the Western United States, in Alaska the increased wildfire activity is causing fires to burn through dense peatlands. Peatland has the added natural greenhouse gas methane as well as carbon dioxide exasperating global warming. Other wildfire global concerns include Australia, Southeast Asia, The Amazon, Siberia, Canada, and other parts of the Arctic. Climate change fires are without a doubt going to become an increasingly consequential way of life as parts of the world continue to get warmer and much drier. Humanity will need to adapt accordingly. The effects will be degraded air quality, infrastructure damage, insurance problems, loss of lives and irreversible damage to the planet. As we grapple with the ferocity of our changing planet, scientists predict record heat and drought making vegetation more flammable which will bring wildfires twice as destructive as the historical average within 30 years.
Global warming has been caused by human activities and is now unequivocal. Fossil fuels have been the main culprit creating the blanket that absorbs the heat around the world.
The war over water
Imagine flicking the light switch in your front room and no light coming on or tuning on the kitchen tap to fill the kettle and no water coming out. Or you go to use the bathroom and there are no flushing loos or any loo at all. With 2,3 billion people lacking basic sanitation supply or access to fresh water in this world today is it a surprise how many wars and skirmishes there are over access or control of water? Wars over resources are nothing new. For centuries humans have fought over land, oil, and trade routes but as climate change takes a hold of our planet, the earth becomes hotter, and drier with desertification, displacement, deforestation, and failed crops. Surely it is inevitable that humans will go to war over the second most precious resource after air, water.
Unless we change the way we manage this life-sustaining resource and how we interact with each other, then history and science predict there will be more war. Since the 1960’s Turkey has had strained political tensions with Syria and Iraq because of unilateral irrigation plans altering the river Euphrates-Tigris basin flow. Even today disputes have prevented the governments from effectively coming to any real concrete/formal agreement on co-management. With the UN predicting that by 2050 two-thirds of the global population will be living in water-scarce areas, this is a serious threat to humanity as a whole not just the east. It is also predicted that approximately five years later 700 million around the world will be forced into displacement because of water scarcity. After all, like air, people cannot live without water. So, it is imminent that with this prediction in mind, there will be two choices. Move somewhere where there is water or fight for the water you presently have access to.
Taking a brief look at Yemen as an example. In 2017 the drought across Yemen, South Sudan, and Somalia put more than 20 million people at risk. The UN described it as the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. We know that conflict over water is not new news, history tells us that there have been nearly 1,300 conflicts related to water. One of the most relevant examples of water-triggered conflicts is that of water access in the Darfur region of Sudan. Fighting broke out competing over water and land. The result was violence, with thousands of innocent people killed and many more displaced. With the environmental degradation and competition for water resources and the long history of ethnic marginalization, manipulation, and exploitation. This merely points out my previous point of how imperative it is that humans learn to share, interact without bias, and stop tribal fighting, competing and exploitation to make money. For the love of God and our planet let's share.
It is without a doubt that a drought caused by the decrease in rainfall of 15% -30% caused an ecological crisis and desertification, that arose at least in part from the current climate change.
With the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being built on the Blue Nile, estimated to have cost billions of dollars there had been a constant threat of the outbreak of war. This massive undertaking, a hydropower project on the Blue Nile, starts in Ethiopia and is estimated to have cost billions of dollars. With a 6,000 — megawatt capacity — the equivalent of six nuclear power stations. When fully activated it is thought to be the largest hydroelectrical power plant in Africa.
However, with Sudan and Egypt relying heavily on the Nile, Egypt especially as all their water flows from the Nile, was to many, seen as a threat. With the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being upstream of Egypt this could be deemed as understandable and since the first brick was placed in 2011, Egypt had opposed this engineering project. With the then leaders of Egypt were caught on camera threatening to destroy the Dam as it was felt that any nation that threatens another nation lively hood is seen as deliberate harm. The Nile is a bloodline for Egypt.
In 2018 Simegnew Bekele, the chief engineer and face of the dam project was found dead in this vehicle: the incident was written off as suicide but there was much adverse speculation as to it being murder at the time. Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed was quoted to say “no force” could prevent the country from finishing the dam.
In 2022 the dam was completed and is now in operation, but because these dams are such massive projects even after completion it can take between 5 to 10 years for the dam reservoir to fill up.
With natural climate variations causing dry years and climate change influence the flow of the Nile will be reduced leaving less water to complete the filling of the reservoir. Ordinarily what water there was would flow down to Egypt, but it is in Ethiopia’s interest to trap what water there is to enhance the filling of their creation as fast as possible. So it will be during the next few years, since 2022 that the greatest potential for conflict will arise. History shows us war over the River Nile has been taking place for centuries but history did not have human-enhanced climate change.
Charles Iceland, global director of water with the World Resources Institute’s Food, Forests, Water, and the Ocean Program has been recorded as saying, how the planet is seeing a lot more floods and droughts wreaking havoc on societies that climate scientists predicted decades ago. Increasing global temperatures cause more water to evaporate, changing the water cycle and causing heavier rainfall in some, and increased drought in others.
With the least developed countries receiving the brunt of the climate problem. Wealthier countries are also suffering from too many people and a lack of resources placing a strain on those resources. In America, there are constant fights between different states over access to water, as they end up fighting over the dwindling water from the same river. With wells drying up in California, the Colorado River thinning to a dribble and the levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the two largest reservoirs in the United States, at record lows. Although this has not yet led to violence in battle, it has led to legal battles in them suing each other in court.
But how long will it be before we do see more of the developed western wealthier countries turning to violence as the water becomes more and more scarce?
It is important to note that my research leads me to recognize that water wars are inevitable. History also shows us that countries and communities have been prone to cooperation when tackling any water crises. As we see with the Nile dam, that despite years of tension, disputes and threats it has as yet not broken into out-and-out war. But the future could be extremely different as the world continues to become hotter, and drier.
There is also the problem that as the earth becomes ever more overpopulated and polluted that the struggle for access to a vital lifeline like water, will become problematic and there will be an increment of people, countries and continents using extreme measures to secure it. Nowhere more has the effect of water and climate change stress been witnessed in recent years than that of the Tigris-Euphrates Basin killing millions. Also in India’s Northern Plains, villagers regularly clash over water scarcity as the population growth and high levels of irrigation are draining the availability of valuable groundwater.
The rivers Indus, Ganges and Sutlej all originate from the Tibetan side of the border and are considered vital for both India and Pakistan's water supplies. In 2022 skirmishes between India and China over claims to upstream areas left 20 Indian soldiers dead.
China and India showing ever more signs of war as Beijing’s built a “super hydropower dam” in Tibet. This dam built on a section of the Brahmaputra River, upstream from India will not only increase India’s dependence on its neighbour as it impedes water supplies but many other areas will be submerged in flood. China has to date dammed almost every major river on the Tibetan plateau with media reports saying that China’s intention is to create a “hydro-hegemony” by trying to dominate the water economy and ecology in south and south-east Asia.
A Global Early Warning Tool has been developed by using machine learning to predict conflicts before they happen. By combining data about rainfall, crop failures, population density, wealth, agricultural production, levels of corruption, drought, and flooding among other sources of data it produces conflict warnings. These warnings are displayed on a read and orange Mercator projection down to the level of administrative districts. With an 86% accuracy rate, it currently warns of around 2,000 potential hotspots of potential conflicts.
A Revolution is inevitable as is a tipping point
‘Tipping points’ mean different things to different people. Most of them with their implications are well explored in this book. For many a tipping point is when an accumulation of small or even big changes suddenly causes a critical change. Usually, we cannot identify a tipping point until we have passed it. One of the best demonstrations of tipping points is in the behaviour of ecosystems. Within the infinite complexity of living systems in which different organisms depend on each other, one break in the chain or tipping point can bring rapid change to the others linked within it.
A prime example is the negative impact on marine life due to the concentrated brine solution discharged into the ocean from desalination plants. This kills marine organisms and causes untold damage to marine life, which in turn affects the fishing and trawling businesses which then affects the small fresh fishing business and markets inland and so on.
Change is caused by various reasons, including leadership from those in power, pressure from ordinary people through the means at their disposal, such as voting or striking and occasionally from when something goes visibly and attributable wrong and thereby illustrating the need for action. This will be the vital tipping point, the point where society has to stand up and do something to be heard. This is when revolutions become likely. Thatcher had to listen to the English people over the council tax marches.
We are certainly facing what can only constitute changing turbulent times. Labelled the ‘Anthropocene’ by many geologists as it marks the period since the industrial revolution in which the human species has vastly increased its numbers. Then gone on to exploit the natural, often irreplaceable resources of the Earth; upsetting longstanding ecosystems, and leading to the extinction of countless other species. This has changed the chemistry of the land, sea, and air of the Earth in ways we have yet to understand.
With the destabilization of climate, we can only guess at the consequences for the future distribution of water and new means for producing the energy which drives our society. Whereas in the past the rise and fall of civilizations was something regional and distinct, we are now more interconnected than ever before, and as the present economic crisis demonstrates, and my previous chapters already point out, what happens in one place immediately affects what happens in others.
So what, if anything, can we do about all this? Can we discern future tipping points? Which ways could they tip us? Some politicians may still call for more respect for market forces, and argue about the effects of inflation or deflation, the supply of money, and the need for growth. While others are painfully aware of the wider issues concerning the environment in all its aspects. As a race, we have non-negotiation rights; meaning every human has a right to say no to their government. Civil resistance is needed now, we are not being listened to, and capitalism is the main agenda of most of our leading governments not the future of our planet or children.
Climate change is not about the end of the world, it's about the end of human society as we know it.
Does the globalization of society imply a loss of local identity, or — worse — a return to nationalism and local rivalries, with lethal struggles over resources? No one knows the answers. But it is clearer than ever that we need to work globally, and above all identify the common interest in tackling the problems.
