Year 2020 Has Been A Nightmare

Year 2020 Has Been A Nightmare
Year 2020 has undoubtedly been one of the most vicious of years to humanity in recent times. With the advent of the COVID crisis, everything has ever went downhill; in addition, the deaths of numerous notable people makes 2020 even more heart-rending.

The gloominess of 2020 has struck the entire world, and currently, a glimmer of hope is 2021—the times when scientists and researchers predict the vaccine to have been made. Perhaps, 2020 depicts a troublesome era for humankind ahead; it denotes a future where similar crises, due to the existing various types of pollutions coupled with global warming, are going to emerge and challenge mankind. This is distressing.

The COVID pandemic has been significant in a certain way. It has made us all cooperate immensely in multiple ways in order to defeat this deadly global crisis. Additionally, it has made us aware of how the future may be; the exponentially increasing global warming as well as other related factors will sooner make planet Earth laden with global issues such as diseases, soaring temperatures—in which survival will be almost near to impossible—heat waves, cyclones, droughts, and other relevant natural catastrophes.

An article written by Shekhar Chandra published in CNN, named ‘Are parts of India becoming too hot for humans?’ states that continuous heat waves are now a reality in India, with the deadliest ones occurring in Central India particularly. Further, according to scientific experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), even if humanity succeeds in cutting carbon emissions to a specific level, parts of India will still remain immensely hot; more than what humans can endure.

Moreover, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), in between 2030 and 2050, there will be approximately 250,000 deaths each year, caused by climate change solely. In addition, the oppressed nations, who have weak structure of running a country in general, will be least able to cope with the crises. These statistics depict a not-too-distant future, but a one just round the corner and we are even witnessing it currently: the COVID pandemic. In the words of WHO, the effects of global warming will be ‘overwhelmingly negative’.

Indeed, 2020 is a wake-up call for humanity; in order to prevent from future disasters, such as the aforesaid ones. Therefore—although 2020 is oftentimes depicted as a disaster—it will be critically important, later on portrayed as a lesson for humankind when it all ends. Collectively, we have to save ourselves from the looping disasters predicted ahead, no matter what the hurdles.

With 2020, I can aptly decipher the meaning of this line by Michael Lewis, “There’s something bad in everything good and something good in everything bad.”

Specifically, Pakistan has major issues, relevant to climate change. For instance, the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas coupled with the lack of food and water in many areas depicts a not-too-bright for Pakistan in terms of economy, in particular. In Pakistan, heat waves especially in the regions of Sindh, occur quite often; heat strokes cause the deaths of countless people each year. A heat stroke in June 2015 in Karachi caused the deaths of approximately 2,000 people. Soaring temperatures as high as 49 °C were primarily the reason for all the havoc wreaked in the city.

To conclude, such things have been already brought into existence; the prevailing COVID crisis also depicts so. 2020 can, therefore, be a beacon of hope for the future of mankind.