You’ve probably read and shared scores of warnings about global warming and climate change. Although a lot has been said about the Earth turning into a burning ball of fire, we don’t really understand unless we see it with our eyes or experience it ourselves, right?
If that is how you feel, let us show you some disturbing pictures of the coldest places on Earth melting and catching fire that will leave no doubt in your mind that the end is near.
The Arctic circle that is supposed to be the coolest place on the planet is currently facing the worst wildfires in the world. The arctic circle comprises of countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Iceland and parts of USA and Canada.
It’s not just the Arctic Circle that is in trouble. Greenland once had ice and glaciers as a majority of its surface area. But not anymore. The island lost nearly 200 billion tons of ice in July, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute.
Just so you know, although wildfires and ice melting are natural phenomenons they just don’t occur out of the blue. They are caused by a rapid rise in the overall temperature of the Earth. The Arctic saw an unusual temperature spike in the summer season. The high temperatures combined with the parched forest and the dense vegetation has resulted in several dangerous wildfires.
And with a fire that dense, it will emit an excessive amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, making the ecosystem even more toxic.
Multiple images of the wildfire and the ice melting have been circulating around the internet. Check out the following tweets, they sure scared the hell out of me!
Huge Arctic fires have now emitted a record-breaking amount of CO2 https://t.co/Zhx2YtvHRj pic.twitter.com/NE4F8M62uu
— New Scientist (@newscientist) July 27, 2019
This is a roaring glacial melt, under the bridge to Kangerlussiauq, Greenland where it's 22C today and Danish officials say 12 billions tons of ice melted in 24 hours, yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Rl2odG4xWj
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 1, 2019
And what happens in Greenland will be felt across the world. https://t.co/jJbpQDDNpd
— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) August 2, 2019
Models need satellite observations like these in order to calibrate their simulations. And models also help satellite to improve their detection algorithms. It is this back and forth that really moves forward our understanding of the Earth system. #Siberianfires @m_parrington https://t.co/vcxEH31pTf
— Santiago Gassó (@SanGasso) August 1, 2019
Evolution of CO from the #wildfires in #Russia between 18-31 July from #TROPOMI #Sentinel5p @ESA_EO and @CopernicusECMWF Atmosphere Monitoring Service @ECMWF data. The S5P data are not assimilated by CAMS yet and give independent validation. cc @m_parrington pic.twitter.com/jgjfBkauyy
— Antje Inness (@AntjeInness) August 1, 2019
#savesiberianforest pic.twitter.com/W6zMbNuqWz
— Ksuxandra (@Demonksy) July 28, 2019
You see. If the coldest places on Earth are undergoing such catastrophic repercussions of increased temperatures, one has to wonder how India will tackle it. The outlook is grim, folks.