There's reason to believe that climate change is going to be quite a bit more destructive than we would presently anticipate. To call it apocalyptic would not be an understatement. There are potential outcomes within the realm of possibilities that our civilization would simply not survive.
During the end of the last glacial period and the beginning of the Holocene, the temperature of the Earth increased a lot. As a result, the ice began to melt. This changes the pressure on the land mass. It also changes the pressure on the oceans, because of the rise in sea level. This leads to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In Iceland, volcanic activity increased 30-fold during the last deglaciation period.
We can look at our Earth today and see that similar changes seem to be happening. Volcanic activity has increased in the last few years. Enormous earthquakes seem to have become more frequent too. Since 1900, we've seen an increase in earthquakes with a magnitude exceeding 8.8
Some of the most likely places for earthquakes to happen are those places where the ice is currently melting, like in Greenland and Antarctica. If this happens, it would accelerate the ice loss there, thus accelerating the rise in sea levels. Is this a bad thing? If volcanoes erupt, it should temporarily reduce the rise in temperatures. In addition, if earthquakes increase the land ice loss, this increases sea levels. This is important, because as the earth warms, methane hydrates in the ocean are at risk of destabilization. When sea level rises, the increased pressure increases the stability of the methane hydrates.
Climate change even seems to be caused a pole reversal. It is estimated that ice melting and sea level change can explain 90 percent of the eastward shift of the magnetic north. The Earth's pole shift is rapidly accelerating. The Earth's magnetic field is now weakening at a rate of five percent per decade, ten times faster than people first thought.
What does this mean? When the poles shift, we'll be temporarily stuck without the magnetic field to protect us against radiation from the sun. The Earth's magnetic field protects us against coronal mass ejections. Coronal mass ejections are responsible for suddenly destroying electrical devices, causing massive blackouts that can take months to fix and affect millions of people at the same time. Now that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening, we become increasingly vulnerable to such an event.
When such a massive blackout happens, everything you can think of ceases to work. I can think back of what happened in my own country a few weeks ago in a power shortage. Ships can't sail through rivers because bridges are closed, or cars can't cross them because they're open. With no traffic lights, car crashes happen, blocking traffic. Trams and metro cease to work, trains are stuck in the middle of nowhere because they use electricity, people with electrical cars can't move anywhere either. The airport here in my city could not have planes land, despite there being electricity, because part of the coordination is done at Schiphol, our country's biggest airport, where no airplanes could land either.
People get stuck in their house, because they physically can't walk up and down the stairs. People get stuck in elevators. Someone has to come to help them get out, but with no traffic lights, car crashes happen, blocking traffic. Water continually has to be pumped up in my country, because we live below sea level. When there is no electricity, the pumps cease to work, which given enough time leads to flooding of entire neighborhoods. Many people have electrical plates, thus depending on electricity to cook their food. Refrigerators cease to work, causing food to spoil.
With most money being electrical, stored on RFID cards, many people will be unable to pay for food, because they don't have physical cash. Looting happens, because security cameras cease to function. Given enough time, the spent fuel pools of nuclear power plants begin to overheat, which will require constant intervention to keep them cool. If this doesn't work, the spent fuel pools begin to release radiation, which means that the environment becomes so radioactive that people who try to prevent a further release of radiation will die in the process. Then, what remains of us will serve as a warning for future generations.
Submitted April 13, 2015 at 07:42PM by imbackagainbros2 http://www.reddit.com/r/accountt1234/comments/32fyue/apocalyptic_climate_change/ accountt1234
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