With more than 2,49,000 deaths worldwide, the novel coronavirus that apparently originated in a Wuhan seafood market is continuing its killing spree in all nooks of the world. The way the pandemic has changed our life clearly suggests that the world will never be the same in the coming years. Social distancing and wearing of masks could turn out to be the 'new normal'. But more than the coronavirus, it is the ticking climate bomb that calls for our urgent attention, says an environmental expert.
Climate change a serious problem
In an exclusive talk with Express.co.uk, Professor Peter de Menocal, director of the Center for Climate and Life at Lamont, predicted that life will return to normal in a year, as scientists will succeed in developing a vaccine for coronavirus. But when it comes to climate change, things are different, calling into question the very habitability of the planet.
"We saw the COVID virus pandemic brewing on the horizon as a threat many months ago. But this will play out and a vaccine and countermeasures will be developed and we will be relatively back to normal a year from now. But in the case of climate change, it's different. It's similar in the sense we know this is brewing on the horizon, we know what the impacts are going to be roughly and we also know the scope of the impacts across the economy and we can plan for it. The reason why it's so much bigger is that the impacts are really across the entire spectrum of habitability for the planet," Menocal told Express.co.uk.
According to Menocal, the impact of climate change will adversely affect all walks of human life, including the availability of freshwater and production of crops.
Is the earth choking?
A recent study had suggested that the regrowth of Amazon forests is happening much slower than previously speculated. Experts warn that this finding has a huge significance, as climate scientists might have literally overlooked the capability of secondary forests to soak up carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere. Secondary forests have a huge role to play in combating climate change, and the slow regrowth indicates that planet earth is choking due to adverse human activities.
