Will the world end in 12 years if we don't address climate change, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said?
The problem is not the world ending, but rather, the problem of being irreversible. Consider the following scenarios:Scenario 1:I drink about a litre of Coca-Cola every day (the actual kind, not the Diet Coke that Trump likes to consume). I eat lots of pizza to go with that Coke. I hardly exercise (I do spend way too much time on Quora). I like to eat chips too (because I need to munch on something while binging a show).As I’m pretty sure that you’ll agree, I seem to be leading a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. I’m at risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc. Any one of these could either kill me, or lead to organ failure which could kill me. Will I be die immediately?No. But I will spend the rest of my life in pain.Scenario 2:Starts off like scenario 1, but about a week into this unhealthy lifestyle, I go for a health check-up and see my high blood sugar, high cholesterol, etc. The doctor then prescribes lots of diet and exercise, and soon after, my blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. all are normal, and I’m not in danger of death, or organ failure, or both.In essence, this is what AOC is trying to say. If we don’t address climate change, it could be too late. And if it is too late, it’s not that the Earth will get destroyed, but rather, we will.
List of climate change effects?
- more extreme weather events (increased rate and intensity) due to warming of oceans and other large water surfaces causing more water vapor in the air; - melting of sea ice which diminishes the albedo affect (sunlight being reflected back due to white color of ice) while at the same time the now exposed sea water traps more heat and expands causing sea levels to rise; - disruption of natural habitat causing extinction of animals and flora because they simply cannot adapt to new environment in such a short period of time (ie, polar bears need sea ice to hunt for seals while seals need the same to breed. When the amount of sea ice shelves decreases both species will be affected). For more info, see links below.