From the start of time until the present, Earth has experienced the most catastrophic events and has evolved every time. From the extinction of dinosaurs from the asteroid, the ice age and now, the incoming climate change crisis. This is the biggest impact on Earth due to the slow deterioration of biomes, species and overall, the global temperature. The global temperature is vital as it affects everything and indicates whether human activities and natural causes have tipped over a certain degree which will disallow any improvement and reversible actions to work at all.
As a planet, it is excruciatingly important to recognise our mistakes as soon as possible and hold ourselves accountable. Currently, there are many companies that are deceiving in the amount of fossil fuel production they are using, knowing very well they are over the boundaries put in place. Companies such as BP, ExxonMobil and Shell are the most recognised fuel companies and they have been part of companies that deceive the public over the billions of over the boundary use of fossil fuels they have been responsible for. This is called greenwashing and has been an increasing trend over the years to avoid extra charges and to appease the public with their deceptive innocence. These malicious acts of protecting profits are not benefiting climate change and are hugely contributing to global warming, as fossil fuels are the greatest cause of the increase of global temperatures, as they release toxins, which increase the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
This is a problem as now the world has inhibited the enhanced greenhouse gases and now, even with large surfaces and vegetation across the world cannot amount to the thousands of trapped insolation, decreasing the albedo rapidly. For example, urban cities have been contributing to the urban canyon, where concentrated heat is found from trapped insolation. This is irreversible for urban cities like London, as they cannot control the emissions, they are responsible for and cannot reduce them. London has tried the ULEZ project, however, it has had concerns and protests over the eligibility. It is a great short-term plan, but predictions have been made if it is reliable and can be implemented in many other cities.
With such complicated problems that have direct solutions that can work if everyone can contribute, the question lies if we can no longer fix what we have caused. Whether we have damaged our nature and can no longer go back to a healthy beginning. Asteroid warnings and increased global temperatures are all contributing to the inevitability of the destruction of Earth.
But what if there was a plan B? Another planet to nurture and fix our mistakes for the last time?
Questions have lingered over whether there is another planet like Earth that can have living vegetation and human life. This obsession began after the exploration of Mars and the Moon in the 1960s, specifically in the USA. As years went on, many discoveries have been made, one of them being called Planet D, which is 90% of Earth’s actual size and orbits similarly. It has a similar habitable zone to Earth, as it is around a ‘Goldilocks Zone,’ which makes it not too hot or not too cold which is a perfect temperature. There have been excellent predictions but only Earth has been deemed suitable, which is unfortunate.
However, it is possible to explore these options of exo-planets and their suitability for humans. The most researched is the planet named Kepler 452b, which is by far the most relatable to Earth. It is 1,400 light years away, which would take 26 million years to reach! But with such a far planet, it ticks a lot of the boxes of habitability and its similarity to Earth. Just like Earth, Kepler 452b has a star that it orbits, which is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than the sun. However, this sparked questions about the stage of life that Kepler 452b is at, and with the direction that Earth is heading in comparison to Kepler, it seems as though it is going to go through a stage of a runaway greenhouse effect. This means that water present will start to boil, eventually evaporating and undergoing desertification globally. This is unfortunate as most of its composition showed proof of life.
On the contrary, Venus was also researched along with Kepler 454b, as the comparison of similar events showed that Venus had the possibility of being our second Earth. However, as it is closer to the sun, the runaway greenhouse effect happened faster, which meant that we could not even try to physically explore life on Venus, just like on Mars.
Earth’s composition is unique, so these discoveries are important as they could lead to a solution to our damnation.