We are in the endgame now!

You win or you die.

Thanos did as he promised and wiped out half of all the living which existed in the marvel cinematic universe including some of our favorite superheroes. While we wait in anticipation for the avengers to avenge the fallen, there is a much more significant threat that is set to expunge the living out of our very own planet. Now that might sound very cliched but climate change is our reality. It is the gravest global issue today and everyday till it dooms us all.

Now you might think that this is a very far-fetched environmental issue that is needed to be tackled by the governments and international organizations, and there is only very little we can actually do about it. But to break it for you, these organizations or the people who run them are no avengers to protect humanity, these are just leaders who might/might not care about what is destined to come. So it's about time you gear up and get over the materialistic sorrows that you've been drenched in all your lives because this is the fight for our lives.

Climate change is not a new concept for earth since the climatic patterns might've changed over a bazillion times even before we existed. This sort of change caused the tectonic shift and framed the way our planet is. Who knows, there might've been a civilization similar to ours who might've existed before they perished as victims of the changing climate, all before what we call the beginning of life.

We all have witnessed natural calamities at some point of our lives - either through media or in person. Once the climatic patterns have changed, these would occur more frequently than we can imagine, thus taking hundreds of lives with them. Changing climate would bring about various kinds of diseases and illness. It can cause heat related disorders (as a product of excess heat), respiratory disorders (due of lack of fresh air), infectious diseases, mental health disorders etc. It would also hinder food production which would reduce crop yields.

The poorest of the poor countries would be hit the hardest. Even then, climate change won't discriminate between the rich or poor. It is a known fact that stability in modern societies is proportional to global climate. Climate change can lead to war and conflicts mainly if there is a widespread mismanagement of resources. This has been most recently shown in the context of the Syrian war where a severe 5 years drought destroyed much of Syrian farm and range land, creating a major humanitarian crisis. Such conflicts would increase in the foreseeable future as the human capacity for political problem solving and conflict management will continue to be tested.

As of now, the COP (Conference of parties) arrangement is failing to come up with strategies to mobilize funds to be used to tackle climate change in developing and least developed countries. The Paris Agreement, which describes the commitments of government parties for climate change, is a 12 page document which is a legally binding agreement to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. It has covered important aspects of climate change that need urgent attention. Although, significant countries like USA have backed off from the agreement, there is still hope as China has taken the lead. We don't know for sure whether any of it would ever work or not, but we can try our best to survive through it.

For those of us who want to protect our planet, thank you very much but it doesn't need your protection, it has survived a lot more than you ever can. Instead, all we need to do is protect the living that dwells on the planet from the wrath of nature that is yet to come. If we stop messing with the environment, care for the wild and endangered, stop exploiting what is not ours to use, stop producing methane and other greenhouse gases, and stop relying on fossil fuels and polluting the air we might be able to reduce the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

We're in the endgame now!