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The Year Ahead 2021

Cómo la COVID‑19 puede cambiar el mundo

Dec 29, 2020 Jared Diamond

LOS ÁNGELES – La COVID‑19 está devastando el mundo. Está en proceso de contagiar a muchos (tal vez la mayoría) de las personas, matar a algunas, clausurar las relaciones sociales normales, detener la mayor parte del tráfico internacional de viajeros y provocar un grave daño a las economías y el comercio. ¿Cómo será el mundo en unos pocos años, cuando esta grave crisis llegue a su fin?

Muchos dan por sentado que en poco tiempo las vacunas nos protegerán contra la COVID‑19. Pero esta perspectiva sigue siendo muy incierta.

Científicos de muchos países (China, Estados Unidos, Rusia, el Reino Unido y otros) trabajaron a toda marcha para desarrollar vacunas eficaces contra la COVID‑19, y ya comienzan a aparecer las primeras. Podemos imaginar tres escenarios: el peor posible, el mejor posible y todas las variaciones intermedias.

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Lee 2253 Jan 4, 2021

Resource depletion ?
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Ben Leet Dec 31, 2020

The Fourth National Climate Assessment report, 2019, said the following:
"The global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has now passed 400 parts per million (ppm), a level that last occurred about 3 million years ago, when both global average temperature and sea level were significantly higher than today. Continued growth in CO2 emissions over this century and beyond would lead to an atmospheric concentration not experienced in tens to hundreds of millions of years. There is broad consensus that the further and the faster the Earth system is pushed towards warming, the greater the risk of unanticipated changes and impacts, some of which are potentially large and irreversible."
And this from the same report,
"The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades will depend primarily on the amount of greenhouse gases (especially carbon dioxide) emitted globally. Without major reductions in emissions, the increase in annual average global temperature relative to preindustrial times could reach 9°F (5°C) or more by the end of this century. With significant reductions in emissions, the increase in annual average global temperature could be limited to 3.6°F (2°C) or less."
https://science2017.globalchange.gov/chapter/executive-summary/
Climate Science Special Report, 2017
-------- The National Geographic magazine published an article about discoveries fossils of palm trees that grew in Antarctica when CO2 levels were said to be at today's level. --- time to wake up.
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