It started with the crackling flames of Australia’s bushfire around November 2019, affecting nearly 3 billion animals. This seemed to be the beginning of one of many inevitable disasters worldwide, with the pandemic still in place. From the devastating floods in Indonesia on January 1, 2020, that almost destroyed its capital, Jakarta and its neighbouring areas to more intense fires and record-breaking hurricanes in the United States due to hotter climate caused by carbon emissions, it also affected the extent of these fires. Earthquakes in many parts of the world, Turkey, the Caribbean, China, Iran, Russia, Philippines, India, Russia, Jamaica and there have also been 45 such earthquakes characterised over magnitude 6 and 7creating an unnaturally long list of 2020.
The swarm of locusts that started their assault in East Africa and Pakistan has caused havoc in several parts of India. Though locusts do not affect humans, they do cause severe damage to the crops. This was the worst pest attack in over 26 years. The sudden increase in the locust’s population can be credited to climate change, as the increase in temperatures has made it more habitable to the breeding of locusts. Cyclone Amphan in India and Bangladesh and windstorms in Europe in 2020 were by far the worst affected places and these extratropical cyclones are expected to hit these places more often with increasing intensity as the temperatures rise due to global warming. Unusually rainy monsoons and parts of the Antarctica continent that reflect the sunrays triggered floods occurring in many parts of Asia. Oceans across the world are turning green because of massive algal blooms, all thanks to climate change.
2021 has also been marked with extreme weather ranging from droughts to fires and floods being reported from across the world, especially in July and August, with droughts and fires in southern Europe, Russia and North America to severe floods in western Europe, Africa and Asia and unprecedented heat waves reaching record temperatures. Besides climate change, the reasons for the destructive flames are complex and often man-made. Some fires are reported to be deliberate to make room for new houses. From fires in Mediterranean nations like Turkey, Italy, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and the Balkans to fires on the US west coast, Canada and Russia have been burning and wildfire smoke has reached the North Pole, a first in history. China, India, Myanmar and other African countries are struggling with the flood. Brazil has seen its first snow in decades.
These global-scale disasters are only set to intensify in the years to come. The efforts taken to restore the environment on a global scale might not be enough, we might have already passed onto the point of no return but feelings towards the environment are at an all-time high, through our affirmative activities towards the environment we might not return Earth to its former glory but we can prevent the worst.