Misstep and nonstops of the 21st century that have led to the current year, 2118’s destroyed environment and massively warm climate Introduction

Our planet is being destroyed, at present, by drought, heat, fires and dust and a nearly irreversibly damaged and sick environment, which is impacting the lives of millions with its new dimension of climate change and associated health effects. The climate change impacts felt in the present day are in line with twenty-first century estimates which suggested a possibly devastating, and excessively high, risk to mankind’s health[footnoteRef:1]. According to the estimates, some of global warming’s chief threats to humanity were food insecurity, displacement, malnutrition, and other unanticipated calamities which couldn’t be experimentally ascertained on account of the climate and environment’s long-term and complicated nature. The dire nature of the estimates raises the question of why they weren’t taken seriously by twenty-first century stakeholders and what held them back from taking preventive and corrective action to combat global warming. In this paper, the massive-scale warming’s social and environmental consequences will be addressed, in addition to twenty-first-century non-steps and missteps and the cultural, environmental, and political factors that combined to contribute to this non-action which led to the present excessive climatic and environmental damage. [1: David Roberts, “There’s a huge gap…” Vox, (November 6, 2017)]

Breathable air has been increasing in scarcity since the twenty-first century, with increased trapping of CO2 (carbon dioxide) by the atmosphere. Continued global warming cost America sixty billion dollars towards combating respiratory symptoms and diseases. Air quality deteriorated throughout the century with more events being initiated[footnoteRef:2], accompanied by a continued rise in global warming and climate change that had adverse economic effects (for instance, decreased crop, manufacturing raw material, and production vitality). This led to a collapse in the food industry. The absence of resources for feeding mankind resulted in hunger becoming humanity’s greatest battle. [2: Bill McKibben, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math,” Rolling Stone, July 19, 2012]

Environmental and social consequences of the massive warming

Contemporary researchers have confirmed a century-old concern — with increased warming, the northern permafrost would thaw and frozen soil containing dead but non-decomposed plant remains would begin steadily releasing more carbon into our atmosphere. This phenomenon has been underway for some time now, but its pace and extent is yet to be verified. According...

This global "carbon budget" concept was first introduced during the early part of the previous century when scientists started calculating how much coal, gas and oil we could still safely burn. [3: Chris Mooney, “The Magic Number:” The Washington Post, (November 25, 2015).]
Twenty-second century Americans are becoming aware of the changes occurring around them, some of which include: hotter and longer summers, never-before-experienced unusually hot spells, warmer and shorter winters, heavier rains, increased severity and duration of previously-seasonal allergies, the types of birds visiting their locality in a given month, plant varieties growing in their vegetable patches, and so forth.[footnoteRef:4]. Iowan corn growers, Washington’s oyster growers, and Vermont’s maple syrup makers have been reporting out-of-the-ordinary climate-linked changes. [4: National Climate Assessment, “Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” (2014)]

Other more-dramatic changes are also being witnessed across the nation. A few coastal cities have witnessed their streets flooding more often than before during high tides and storms. A similar phenomenon is being reported by inland cities through which large rivers flow, particularly Northeastern and Midwestern cities. A few high-risk areas are witnessing a growth in insurance rates, while others aren’t offered insurance any longer. With premature snowmelts and drier and hotter weather, Western wildfires are commencing earlier than before and lasting much longer, thereby burning more acreage. Arctic Alaska has witnessed a receding of its summer sea ice which, at one time, offered protection to the coasts. Lastly, autumn storms are now being more erosive, and forcing several communities to relocate[footnoteRef:5]. [5: Ibid]

What went wrong in the 21st century?

Humanity was slow to realize that the planet’s climate was changing; however, this realization was not followed by prompt, effective action to save it from destruction. The twenty-first century was marked by weak attempts at brokering a post-Kyoto agreement, with different world regions choosing to pursue their own selfish priorities. When the matter exacerbated, concerned authorities began collaborating and in 2017, the Paris Climate Accord (PCA; a global agreement) was signed. Still, governments had to combat climate change using reactive strategies and started enacting hard policy for changing how businesses operated and how citizens led their lives. At this point, a fact to bear…