The Gates of Hell open?It s still expanding and devouring everything in its path, and it can t be

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-01-28

Over the years, the global average temperature has continued to rise in the context of climate warming, and many regions have continued to experience record-breaking and rare high temperatures. As temperatures rise, so do a number of problems, one of which is the faster rate of melting of glaciers and permafrost.

Russia's geographical location is at high latitudes, some areas are very close to the North Pole, and in Siberia, Russia, there is a huge crater known as the "Gate of Hell", deep space appeared, and it is still expanding, and as it expands, it will swallow everything in its path. And in the face of the ever-widening pit of this huge crater, there is nothing we can do now, because it is a product of global warming, and climate warming is a global problem.

Despite its high latitudes, Russia is one of the countries most affected by climate warming, especially in Siberia. Siberia, on the other hand, has a large area of permafrost. As temperatures rise, the permafrost in Siberia that has been frozen for thousands of years is melting at an alarming rate, and this is how the Batagekka pit, known as the "Gate of Hell", was born.

Under normal circumstances, the permafrost is frozen, including all kinds of materials underground, and as the temperature rises, the permafrost melts faster.

In addition to gases such as water, soil, and methane, there are also a large number of prehistoric biological remains under the permafrost, as well as some prehistoric microorganisms, some of which may awaken and decompose as the permafrost accelerates its thawing. In this process, prehistoric microorganisms produced large amounts of gas, which eventually led to an accumulation of more and more gases under the permafrost and an increasing pressure inside.

Once the air pressure under the permafrost reaches a certain critical point, it will "blow away" the upper blocks, so that some huge craters similar to the Batagaika pit are formed. The rate of permafrost thawing has not slowed down as temperatures continue to rise, which has led to the fact that these craters are still expanding. While scientists are not sure how quickly the Batagaika pit is expanding, locals have noticed that it is indeed getting bigger.

For example, Strutchkov, a local, said that the edge of the crater was 20-30 meters away from the nearby road, but now the pit is getting closer to the road.

And the appearance of such a deep pit is not a good thing for human beings. Tananaev, chief researcher at the Mernikov Institute of Permafrost in Yakutsk, said that the soil at a depth of about 100 meters below the craters contains a lot of organic carbon, which is exposed and released into the atmosphere as the permafrost melts, further exacerbating the trend of climate warming.

Some time ago, the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) opened as scheduled, and according to the latest "2023 Emissions Gap Report" released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the climate action plans adopted by countries are still insufficient to limit global warming to 15, the highest goals of the Paris Agreement will not be achieved.

As things stand, warnings such as "humanity has opened the door to hell" and "climate breakdown has begun" as previously mentioned by UN Secretary-General António Guterres may become a reality that we must face, and there is still a long way to go to "pull us back from the edge of the climate cliff".

Therefore, the president of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) said that in the next less than 7 years, the global annual emissions must be reduced by 7%, and he hopes that countries around the world will increase their climate action efforts and take more stringent emission reduction measures.

These warnings issued by the United Nations are not alarmist, in fact, the earth's temperature has indeed risen in recent years. On the opening day of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the World Meteorological Organization declared 2023 the hottest year on record. That said, 2023 is the hottest year on record, hotter than in more than 100 years before.

On November 20, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union's climate monitoring agency, said that on November 17, the average global temperature was 2 percent higher than the pre-industrial level between 1850 and 190007 is the first time on record that the global average temperature increase in a single day has exceeded 2. On November 18, the global average temperature also rose by more than 2 to 206℃。

As the warming continues, record-breaking temperatures are likely to remain frequent. On December 8, the UK's National Weather Service** said that by 2024, the global average surface temperature could be 15 years above the first year. If so, it could become a landmark event in climate history.

According to many studies, the earth's temperature may continue to rise in the coming period, and as the temperature rises, the problems will not only be hotter, but many problems will also arise.

For example, rare droughts and floods are likely to become more frequent, and severe wildfires are likely to become more frequent and severe. If extreme weather issues such as these continue to occur, it will ultimately affect us as human beings. Since there are many problems caused by global warming, what should we humans do?

In recent years, scientists have been committed to studying the trend of climate development, and are also studying methods and solutions to solve the problem of climate warming. One of the reasons for the continuous rise in global temperature is the consumption of fossil fuels, which produces a large amount of greenhouse gases, so the solution to the problem of global warming can be started from this aspect.

Simon Steele, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that if we do not signal the end of the fossil fuel era, we will have our own end. It is undeniable that the consumption of fossil fuels such as oil and coal has indeed brought great wealth to mankind and made our society develop rapidly, but the impact of these fossil fuels cannot be ignored.

With the continuous advancement of technology, we are now vigorously developing clean energy that can replace fossil fuels, such as solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, etc. These clean energy sources will allow us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to some extent. However, these clean energy sources will not be able to shake the status of fossil fuels in the near future, so we need to step up our efforts to find more clean energy.

In addition to reducing the consumption of fossil fuels at the source, we also need to find ways to reduce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that are already present in the atmosphere. Since plants consume carbon dioxide when they photosynthesize, afforestation is also a good option. One of the reasons why our country has been committed to afforestation over the years is also to alleviate the problem of climate warming, and now some results have been achieved.

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