GLOBAL HEATING

Since the times of begining of COVID, I have gotten into this habit of reading news from all around the world; I read different publications from different countries. Not a day goes by, when I don't read of some event or catastrophe somewhere in the world, which is not related to Global Heating. A flood here, a drought thre, a glacier gone here, torrential rains there, forest fires here, extinct species there, problems on the land, problems in the ocean. The more I read, the more I am motivated to act. And honestly, the more I read, the more I get the shivers. A feeling of doom that's coming. And is of our own making. And still we refuse to acknowledge it and continue strangulating our mother earth. We are facing this because, in our haste for our luxuries, for taste, for worldly items and such, we have conveniently forgotten that there are millions of other living species on the planet as well. But we see only 'us'. We never focused on their rights to live, their land, their habitat. In this collective short sightedness of mankind, we have invited a destruction, from which there is no going back.

These write ups on Global Heating are like my own personal thesis. My knowledge about it is far limited, but I intend to keep reading, improvise myself, and keep sharing it here. It is an ongoing thing. Below and in one more section, I have penned down the facts about Global Heating. Presently am focusing on my exams, which should be over by March 2023 or so. Will write much more after that.

The image above is that of a coral reef, which has been badly ‘bleached’. In case you are not aware, a Coral Reef teeming with life looks like this picture below:


It’s a wonderful display of colours and thousands of different life forms on earth, living in harmony and symbiosis. A ‘Coral’ is in invertebrate; they stay in large groups, interconnected and have finger like projections, in which microscopic algae grow, which give a coral their color, as well as form their food. It’s a very beautiful evidence of how mother earth allows the smallest of the life forms to grow, to live, be inter dependent, and together, as a community, thrive. A ‘live’ coral reef, with all its inhabitants, is a perfect example of a survival of a ecosystem. Corals give shelter to various life forms like fishes, planktons, turtles, and so many other sea creatures.

A Coral Reef is like a city in itself!

Coral reefs are very susceptible to even the slightest temperature changes of ocean water and even a marginal rise in temperature, will cause the corals to 'expel' the algae and turn ‘white’ and in turn, all other life forms are also driven away. It will cause a collapse of the whole system. When this happens, it is called ‘bleaching’ of a reef.

It looks like a city, destroyed by a nuclear bomb - with all its broken empty, lifeless buildings, with not even a single soul in sight.

A warming ocean is not the only cause of bleaching, but by far, the most major cause. Corals can recover from smaller bleaching events, but larger and longer ones, and repetitive events eventually cause the death of a coral. According to the journal Science, the frequency of coral bleaching has increased five fold - once every 25 to 30 years (in the 1980s), to once in five to six years (in 2016). The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) confirmed in March 2022 that this was the sixth mass bleaching event of the reef on record and the fourth since 2016! Even the most robust corals require a decade to recover. Back to back bleaching makes the chances of recovery remote.

The reason I chose Coral Reef to focus on Global heating is, it is one of the earliest and direct reflectors of the changing health of our Mother Earth. It's a dying call from Mother Earth. Many people can argue this could be routine and there could be a recovery. To explain things better, I request you to read the second part of my discussion on Global Heating.

Click Here to read the second part (Part Two) of my blog topic - Global Heating