Into The Future
A question that seems to constantly appear everywhere is: What will the future look like? Or more specifically, what will happen?
Well, as the majority of the predictions are, what I say is not going to be 100% accurate, but we can sort of make a picture based on past and present day statistics and data! It may seem complicated, but trust me, nothing here is beyond anyone’s comprehension. Anyway, let’s jump in.
One of the biggest, if not, the biggest current events happening right now is Covid-19. Yeah, yeah, I wrote 2 articles on it already, but this time we aren’t going to look into Covid-19 itself, but rather it’s infection rate, cases per month, and all around just the “statistics” part of Covid-19 you could say. As we all know, Covid-19 is still spreading at a rapid rate. As we look at the graph below, we can see that Covid-19 dipped in cases briefly, until now as it is starting to rise.
Data From NYT Covid Tracker
I like to call this “the wave”. A pattern that can be seen in graphs, as sets of data seem to shift up and down at a similar pace and rate everytime it rises or dips. However, the wave that is presented on the graph looks to be the only wave, most likely the beginning of one. Looking at the past months, we clearly see that Covid-19 spiked, and everytime it lowered by a few thousand cases, it immediately rose back up higher than the last time it spiked... usually (The visual below shows this statement.)
The wave we are in according to the data says that the rise began in late June. Ever since, the worldwide population has been averaging nearly 600,000 new cases a day. A quick answer to why the number is so high is obvious; there aren’t enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone in the world! The UK Research Charity recently surveyed numerous people in different countries, and their findings say that almost 1 in 5 people in the world disagree with the safety of the vaccines. But it’s not just Anti-vaxxers, it’s also the government and delivery that plays a role.
See, when the pandemic got serious, big countries such as the US and UKbegan making deals with BioNTech & Pfizer to be able to get all the vaccines they can. The US put in enough money to buy nearly 300 million vaccines. And the UK is following in similar footsteps as the US. The problem this caused was a chain reaction. More and more countries put in offers creating a waiting line, this made it so poorer countries got fewer vaccines and didn't get them as fast. Bigger countries on the other hand were able to buy their way into buying more vaccines
So in conclusion, Covid-19 in the future may not be resolved as fast as we all wish it could be, in fact if the actions countries are doing continue, it could push the Covid-19 timeline even further. So we’ve talked about Covid-19, what about everything else?
An equally big topic going around is climate change, AKA global warming. Global warming is caused by mass amounts of greenhouse gasses being emitted by man-made objects. Most of these “objects” are energy plants that help produce energy to power countries and cities within. Humans use fossil fuels as their main way of making electricity, but why? Well non-renewable energy sources such as natural gasses, coal, and fossil fuels are mainly used because of how efficient and abundant they are.
The one downside to these non-renewable products is the fact that they produce a lot, and I mean a lot, of greenhouse emissions every day. Over time as these gasses build up in our atmosphere, it slowly traps more and more heat, and allows less heat to escape. The primary reason why we want to switch to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, is because of the heating of Earth. Not just that, but as the air begins to warm, so does the ocean. Warmer oceans means more summer storms in the summer, and why? Warm water and calm seas is what fuels hurricanes and tropical storms.
I believe that it is pretty self explanatory why global warming is bad. But just how bad is it? Well the visual below shows how much non-renewable energy sources we’ve used so far. Naming the sources from left to right:
Natural Gas (We’ve used)
Uranium (We’ve used)
Oil (We’ve used)
How much coal is left
How much coal we’ve used
Natural Gas -> Uranium -> Petroleum -> How much coal is left -> Coal
After looking at this, just imagine all of THAT in the Earth’s atmosphere. See?
The future of Earth may not look bright, but with time, and if we all try to fix this, Earth’s future will be bright once again.
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Original Document: The Astron | Into the Future
Covid-19 Stats: Covid-19 Cases Graph
Global Warming Video: VFX Artist Reveals how Many Solar Panels…
Vox: How Rich Countries are Making Covid-19 Last Longer
Brainstorm Paper: Astron Brainstorm Paper
