The forests on fire| The Himalayas go liquid| Are global warming and climate change the reason?

And each month you sleep,

you are one step closer to becoming extinct.

The need for a sustainable environment; where humans live in peace with humans, and humans maintain harmony with the nature; is more than ever before. Our whole ecosystem will be in grave danger if it continues to remain in the hands of a fistful of people, who have the attitude of I-am-living-I-am-protected-and-I-can-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want-with-the-money-and-power-I-possess-and-I-don't-give-a-damn-thing-about-its-people-and-the-Earth.

Through this blog, today, I am going to try my best to explain you about the happenings, deep in the jungles of the world and the high peaks of mountains like Himalayas. I am going to feed your brain with some pretty shocking facts throughout this whole blog. So hold on to your seats for an amazing and beautiful ride down the journey of destruction of Nature by us, Humans! 
1. THE GREAT HIMALAYAS GO LIQUID!

➢The Himalayan range is a 2400 km long chain of mountains covered with white sheets of ice. This range has many of the Earth's highest peaks, including the great Mount Everest.

 ➣The Himalayas are not only inhabited by 52.7 million people but also serve as the rising point of some of the world's major rivers-- the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo- Brahmaputra.  

But why am I telling you all this? What do you have to do with this? 

Let me first tell you➜

➤ The research has shown that 8 billion tonnes of ice are being lost each year! It wouldn't have been much of a concern if it was being replaced. But in reality, the snow in the Himalayas is not being replaced at all.

➤The lower glaciers in this range are shrinking to 5m by height annually

There has been a doubling in the speed of the glacier melt.

➤Professors say that one-third of the ice in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya ranges was already doomed to melt by the end of the century, even if immediate actions were taken to cut the emissions down. But, without any action two thirds of it would perish

💭FACT CORNER

Average loss of ice was 43 cm per year from 2000-2016.

The Himalayas form an impassable barrier between it and the lands to the North. It is because of the snow covered mountains that many perennial rivers have been born. 

I want you to consider this for a moment. “ If the whole Himalayan range vanishes, what will happen around the world?”

This will be the result of it:-

~a total wreckage of the ecosystem

~the winds will go haywire

~the earth’s temperature would further increase because the Himalayas help cool down the earth

~moreover, India would suffer the most. It would a totally unpredictable environment and the people living near the Himalayan basin will die because of water scarcity.

 ➤If we let the Himalayas melt, it will mean, the extinction of a vast range of biodiversity and further increase in global warming.

⧫ WHAT IS CAUSING THIS?

➤ The evidence points to human-caused climate change being the dominant cause of the melting. 

⧫ WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF THE CLIMATE EFFORTS FAIL?

➢ If global climate efforts fail, the study warns that current emissions would lead to five degrees rise in temperatures.

➢“Impacts on people in the region, will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events"

➢ Climate change will also reduce how much food farmers will be able to produce in this part of the world. 

2.THE FORESTS ON FIRE!

The Amazon rainforest stretches throughout an area of 670 million hectares. It has been the world's largest carbon dioxide sink. This wonderful rainforest is also the abode of innumerable species of animals which are the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world.

💭 FACT CORNER

➜The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals.

Even after knowing all this, why do we still harm it? What is wrong with us? More precisely, "What was wrong with us while we were continuously deforesting the jungle for our own selfish purposes, and which then led to be one of the main causes of a fierce wildfires around the world?"

Hear this out:

The total fires that lasted from January to October consumed a total of 906 hectares of the land of the Amazon forest. Do you know how much that is? It is too freaking much! 

••••••••••••
All the causes of the melting of so many glaciers and fires in the different jungles all around the world point to one definite cause---
Deforestation.
BUT HOW IS THIS THE MAIN CAUSE? LET US FIND OUT.
✓The trees take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.
✓When we cut a tree down we are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere, which would have otherwise been absorbed by the tree.
✓Then due to setting up of new industries and excessive burning of fossil fuels in the form of petroleum, diesel,coal etc., the carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide content in the atmosphere increase. The fossil fuels while burning also produce large amounts of heat.
✓ Now these gases trap more than needed heat inside the Earth, thereby causing Global Warming.
✓Because of this global warming the overall temperature of the earth increases like anything.

✓Thus if there are less number of trees present in our environment, the carbon dioxide being absorbed by them will also decrease.
✓Hence, this is causing the drying up of trees and land and melting of glaciers.
✓But this melting of glaciers is not in any way useful to us because, the melted  water goes into the contaminated rivers and finally into the sea. And we all know that we cannot consume the sea water.

But the main cause for such a large scale deforestation in the, "Lungs of the world" is because of the increased industrial and agricultural activity here. The trees are being cut down in big numbers because of the demands by the paper and other such industries. 
•To reduce the amount of trees being cut down we on our part can reduce the use of paper, and instead go for recycled paper. Let us keep in mind that a one sided paper can be used once again before it is thrown away.

Picture showing parts of South America struck by the Amazon fire.

 I feel pity towards those little lives who will have to get choked once more because of us.

 I mean, The Amazon jungle is called the "Lungs of the World" for a reason! We can't just go on messing around with the ecosystem, disrupt it, and then don't even take the blame on us and try to correct it.

Remember:

➢Without the Amazon's  carbon dioxide sink, the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere would increase and contribute towards higher global temperatures. 

 💭 FACT CORNER:-

➜ It is feared that the Amazon could reach a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly die out and the land would become more savanna than forest.

         We cannot let this happen at any cost! We can't be so devilish that we ignite a massive fire in the homes of the innocent, without their knowledge and then pretend as if we weren't the mastermind behind it all.

There are things we can do on our part:-

✓ Sign the petitions that I have listed at the end of this blog.

✓Adopt the alternative sources of energy to decrease the emission of harmful gases by fossil fuels.

✓ Go for reduce, reuse and recycle.

✓Plant trees and more trees and go on planting them

 ⧫ I urge you all to spread this awareness and information, about our environment and what we can do to sustain it, to 
 people who don't have access to such information like you and me, to people who are unable to read 
and do your part in sustaining this beautiful planet. Share this to as many as you can. Animals are not ours to kill. And the Earth is solely not ours to choke. We all are responsible for our own actions. We must remember this! ⧫

In the end I would like to share a small poem with you all. 

⧫ A love letter from nature...⧫

“You ignited the fire in the Amazon

and increased the deforestation for individual lust;

You ignited the fire in Australia , the kangaroo’s home,

And left them to choke and die and burn;

You also ignite the fires in California,

And then go on to melt the beautiful Himalaya;

But stop will you now devil humans?

Stop will you now blaming all this on the Earth?

You yourself are choking the lives of your children,

If you want to save your only Holy Mother,

Then stop the Earth’s ruthless murder!”

      I hope this blog has been able to create at least a small change in your lives. Do subscribe to my blog page to get the updates and new blogs as soon as they are out. Your thoughts go down in the comments! Have a wonderful day!

The links for the petitions:-
https://www.greenpeacex.in/petitions/urgent-need-to-protect-the-himalayan-region-and-it-s-communities
http://chng.it/FnnvbG86NF
https://endthetrade.com/


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Picture sources:- Shutterstock and national geographic official site
Information sources:- 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas 
https://web.archive.org/web/20120426115802/http://www.effects-of-deforestation.com/amazon-rainforest-deforestation.php