We are in the year 2025, only 14 years from now. People are moving, en masse, to the various equatorial regions of the world. In our country, the United States, there is a mass exodus to places like Florida and Texas. All locations north of North Carolina are cold, icy. New York, my alma mater, is freezing all the time. The summer in the northeast, which used to be mild, is now quite cold, with temperatures in August not exceeding 40 degrees. What happened and why did no one imagine that future?
While the near future described above may seem like a famous Twilight Zone episode, sadly, it is a very near future that is highly likely. The reason for this grim prediction is facts that are based on facts, such as those described and discussed in a very recent New York Times article, on the front page. The article discussed the lowering of the “arctic fence”, which is a protective barrier of swirling air over the arctic region. This barrier, or “fence,” serves to keep cold Arctic air in and keeps non-Arctic air or warm air out. but surprisingly, this “fence” is breaking down.
It is very likely that the cause of this rupture is due to the large increase in humidity in the Earth’s atmosphere. For complicated reasons, as the humidity increases, the “fence” decreases. And why is there an increase in humidity in the atmosphere? It is because the Arctic ice is melting, at a very alarming rate and faster and faster. In the Times article, there were graphic photos of Arctic ice, from 1979 and a few months ago, 2010. In that span of time, 31 years, Arctic ice has melted by more than 30 percent! That is huge and is leading to a much worse situation.
When the ice melts, as it has, it leaves more seawater exposed to direct sunlight. When there is ice, sunlight is reflected back into space. But without ice, seawater ABSORBS sunlight and a concomitant rise in seawater temperature occurs, causing MORE ice melting. And this causes a vicious cycle: more melting ice, less reflection, more temperature rise. This cycle causes a rate of ice melt that is EXPONENTIAL in nature. That is, the ice is melting at an increasingly rapid rate.
What this means is that even though it took 31 years for 30% of the Arctic ice to melt, IT IS NOT GOING TO TAKE ANYWHERE SO LONG FOR THE NEXT 30% TO MELT! And, when more than 50% of the Arctic ice is gone, then logic would dictate that all hell breaks loose. At that stage, where 50% of the ice is gone, in all likelihood, there would be an irrevocable acceleration of total ice loss, complete melting, and a massive amount of water in the atmosphere causing huge storms. snows and other really horrible weather phenomena. The world’s disruptors, our oceans and lakes, would also increase in temperature, since most of the sunlight would no longer be reflected by the ice.
In all likelihood, there will be a large increase in the temperature of the earth. This rise in temperature is ALREADY happening. 2010 was the hottest year ever on record, and the last decade saw the largest temperature rise ever recorded.
One would think that what has been described here would be the biggest story of the year. Not jobs, not wars, not famines, not cancer, not AIDS, not the Oscars, not the Superbowl, not the Middle East conflict, not the housing crisis, not the sub-prime mortgage collapse and its near aftermath to depression. No, one would think that the disappearance of our planet could be a little more important.
In the famous Twilight Zone mentioned at the beginning, people were moving towards the equator. But, for the main part of that episode, the earth was warming, not cooling, and it is the earth, like Venus, that is probably the most likely future, based on the vast thaw. But strangely, 50% or more of the melting ice could, by some strange twist of fate, cause the earth to become super cold. That could happen if the huge increase in humidity in the atmosphere causes a huge, huge increase in the amount of snow. This large amount of snow could possibly supercool the land, causing TOO MUCH light reflection and therefore sending us all into a horribly cold new Ice Age.
The key to knowing is that all of this is happening RIGHT NOW, and whether we end up as Venus (super hot) or Pluto (super cold), in any case, it is too horrible to even contemplate. And yet, for our own sake, we should contemplate it all, because very, very soon, just a few years, we will all be facing a very different reality, and that horrible reality is far advanced and may be irrevocable. . Perhaps some important politician or group of citizens will pronounce on this terrifying situation. I hope so, because we, and our children, will have nowhere to hide when the world changes.