Drought, fires, locust invasions, hurricanes and floods. Global warming continues. In 2020, the coronavirus alone was clearly not enough for the planet…
The pandemic that has covered all countries is not the only natural disaster that will plague our planet. A snowy winter, brought in low water on rivers and lakes, threatens droughts, and this will inevitably entail a significant reduction in yields, which for countries with an agricultural economy threatens with real hunger. Meteorologists warn that this year we should expect a wide variety of abnormal natural phenomena – from monstrous hurricanes and floods, to drought and locust invasions.
At any other time, the world would have no difficulty coping with the elements. But just not now, when the coronavirus pandemic takes away all the forces. Business and transport seemed to have hibernated. And now, any natural disaster can be a real disaster. Moreover, it will have to cope without the help of the international community.
After all, even money now may not solve the problems – transport and trade in the world are practically frozen. Ships with cargo stopped at raids, planes fly only as a last resort, traffic volumes fell in some areas by more than 20%.
Bans on the export of medicines and food have been introduced, many countries are blocking the financing of even planetary projects, for example, the United States refused to finance WHO.
Global warming
Humanity on Earth as if hibernated. But natural processes go on and do not stop for a moment. And the worst in recent years remains global warming. The largest observation stations indicate that March was perhaps the warmest month since 1880 in the entire history of observations. Moreover, people have nothing to do with it – traffic flows are significantly reduced.
The oceans are heating up. In March of this year, it became 0.8 ° C warmer than usual. It is known that hurricanes are born over warm streams in the ocean. And the warmer the current. The more powerful the hurricane. This year, they already managed to “pat” the US coast, and the time of the hurricane season has not yet arrived …
It is known that over warm waters it rains more often and more abundantly than over land – which means that continents are waiting for drought. The increased temperature of the western waters of the Indian Ocean is dangerous because it can cause dry summers and forest fires in Australia, and in the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean they can cause fires in the Amazon.
Global warming is not scary in itself. It upsets the balance of the natural cycle: hotter and drier in summer, harsher and colder in winter. Any wind can turn into a hurricane, rain – into a flood and flood. It is enough to recall the last year, which became the hottest ever recorded. Moreover, this has been going on for at least the second ten years – since the beginning of the XXI century 11 summer temperature records have been recorded.
The rains that began only this week do not have time to fill the reservoirs in Romania and Ukraine to at least an average level, drought is already tormenting French agricultural land
In Germany, the situation is not much better, but the authorities are in no hurry to sound the alarm.
Russia and Kazakhstan, leaders in wheat production in the world, are restricting grain exports, fearing a shortage of this crop in the domestic market due to increased demand and uncontrolled exports.
Long dry weather, of course, is not only a minus, but also a plus – “green” electricity is becoming an increasingly significant part in energy consumption and, therefore, the supply of electricity from thermal plants is becoming smaller, which, of course, has a great impact on the environment.
It\’s not only dry in Europe: America also suffers from a lack of rain. Texas, California, and Oregon are already talking about a drought of the second degree, and the third degree is already plaguing a dozen southern and central states.
True, the state of crops in the world can not be called catastrophic – at least two months ahead, decisive for the ripening of food crops around the world. Record harvests of the past also inspire understandable optimism.
All would be well if the coronavirus pandemic did not supplement the picture with bright colors. She violated the usual patterns of moving freight flows from global to local — warehouse workers, truck drivers, aircraft and ship crews are ill. Which, of course, sharply reduced transportation.
The situation is not even better for farmers – the crops of early crops ripened, which there is no one to harvest and export – labor migrants returned to their countries during quarantine. Poles do not go to Germany, Ukrainians go to Poland, Moroccans cannot get to Spain to harvest strawberries … And this problem is still far from being resolved, which threatens a much worse crisis than it did in 2007–2008 or 2010–2012 years.
Famine and Locust
The threatening food crisis is becoming a hefty problem for rich countries — difficulties in logistics cause a reduction in aid to poor countries. True, even without the appearance of coronavirus, the world lived in anticipation of one of the largest humanitarian crises. But now the likelihood of such a course of events has increased significantly. At least 30 of the poorest countries will experience massive hunger in 2020. This may affect at least every eighth inhabitant of the planet. And then help will need to increase dramatically.
The largest humanitarian organization in the world “feeds” every day about 100 million people. If this help is not available, almost 300 thousand will die of hunger every day …
But this is not all the disasters that await us in 2020. It would seem that hunger, drought and a pandemic are enough. But no … Another “Egyptian plague” raised its head – locust invasions.
By the beginning of 2020, 23 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East were already suffering from the appearance of these huge gluttonous insects. And this was only the first wave. Now the world is waiting with horror for the second – in Kenya, Iran, Ethiopia … Harvest in many countries of Africa and Asia, not all will survive.
