A very dim projection of a possible future...

It is quite something to be able to speak, write and understand other languages. Something the Dutch are good at. Oh yes, and possibly the Belgians. Well, they were Dutch once. I do receive a number of Dutch language websites and one is Quora. It comes in English as well but the subjects written about are completely different. So, the Dutch site had a question which was well answered including a graphic representation. The question asked - What will happen with the world if the temperature increases by 5 degrees? The answer gave the graphic representation from a temperature increase of 4 degrees Celsius. Well, you will not be surprised to know as I have said before, Africa will be uninhabitable except for workers who maintain the solar panels! Only if that is still a possibility. It gets worse, Spain, most of France, the whole region all the way the China, all of the USA and all but a very small part of the southern Patagonia of South America will be very difficult to live in, if at all!

A big part of Antarctica will be suitable for growing crops. Well, there it is; goodbye to more than 70% of the land-area we live in today! Except for very high mountains on Pacific islands, most of Polynesia will have disappeared under water. The Japanese will be gone up Mount Fuji, one of the mountains sticking out of the sea. Lowland New-Guinea is now a complete underwater reef. 

 

Don’t you think us humans have done a brilliant job? And don’t think this will be reversed. We cannot do it. We could but we won’t stop using plastic, we won’t stop driving or flying, we will not stop having sex. Simple? Yes, it is very simple. Overpopulation is without doubt one of the major reasons we are in the position we find ourselves in. We will be the only species that ever lived who will have managed to virtually exterminate itself and everything else. We have used the planet as our own possession, to do whatever we wanted to do and get without thought for the repercussions. 

 

Pretty unambiguous isn’t it? Even if we curtail driving and flying, it will be too late. It will only delay the inevitable. Humans will survive, as they do today in the desert. There will be small groups clustered around oases. The habitable zones might support a few millions, so what we will see are wars to obtain the best living spaces left, water and food. Obviously I don’t think this will happen overnight, so think of the ever-increasing pressures. Africans will not stop trying to come to the north, because if they want to live they need, and must do so. What about 2 billion Chinese? Yeah, what about them? They too will have to move north or to the bit of Antarctica which will be habitable. And all that is supposing the oceans and seas will have recovered from the abominable plastic pollution we have hoisted onto it. The water itself would not worry, it is the billions of creatures who have ingested plastic. There you have it, a future look at a world which will get only just a bit warmer. Just 4 degrees but it is the last four nails in the collective coffin!

Edit 19/2/2020
Just one of the other things noticeable in the world is the occurrence of viruses. The latest one the Snake virus, the one in which two cruise ships have a 'nice' holiday, that is just a foretaste of what is to come. I am not a lugubrious, moaning. negative guy, I am talking sense. If I was a virus I would rejoice at 8 billion people living jowl by jowl! And in very challenging situations as well. Cairo alone, a hotbed of disease. Tokyo, more health conscious but still nearly 40 million people? Greater Tokyo is the most populous city in the world. But yes, us coughing and spluttering in the trams, buses, taxis, you name it, a virus will be the happiest thing around!
It might be OK this time, it will run a short course but even so, viruses mutate very fast!