The end is near

I visit the Athabasca Glacier of the Columbia ice field in Canada almost every summer. I have noticed that ‘snow rivers’ are getting clearer beneath the thick ice surface. The melting process has quietly continued for more than a century. However, such news reports do not catch the eyes of mainstream media or social media or even politicians who want to sell their own narrative. Donald Trump opted out of the Paris climate agreement because leaders like him do not believe in climate change and global warming. Now the US is back, thanks to Joe Biden. This dreadful and anxiety-inducing ecology news is hugely underreported. However, the enemy is at the gates. The focus of trepidation from the impending disastrous consequences of climate change has been shifted to pandemic-related infections and viral transmissions, but the apocalyptic situation is not that far. The sorry state of our planet is largely due to our actions of misusing the earth’s resources.

Another worrisome fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed is the multifarious scientific challenges we face. It also showed how meek our medical and technological advancement can become in the face of an all-encompassing threat. The use of AI in the medical field was certainly not sufficient enough to deal with all the facets of human health and the risks attached to it. The pandemic allowed the earth to take some of its territory back from humankind. We are still not sure where to go from here or whether we accept it as our new ‘permanent’ normal. Only time will tell.

Anas A Khan

Edmonton, Canada