Global Warming: Climate Change Affecting Languages Too

Over the decades, the statement “the world is changing” has been used in describing the effects of global warming on earth. The change in the climate, due to the constant release of unwanted incense from the greenhouse gas emission is causing whole damage to the earth. The horriffic change in weather condition is derailing biodiversities and the messy release of the greenhouse gas emissions is escorting us to our early grave as it creates thousands of fears in us. It is depriving humanities right to life and humiliating us from having access to the necessities of life. The gist is climate change has not come for human, plants, weather alone. It is affecting many things and these things are in danger. It is also causing a frequent reduction in linguistic diversity and cultural embellishment.

According to UNESCO, there are some 6000- 7000 languages in the world today. About 97% of the world’s population speaks only 4% of these languages, while only 3% of the world speaks 96% of all remaining languages. Among these languages spoken in the world, about two thousand languages are on the verge of endangerment and a language or more becomes extinct every two weeks. More than 50% of endangered languages in the world are located in Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Cameroon. Some of these endangered languages are caused by colonisation, conflicts and while others are mostly caused by climate change.

Researchers, linguists, and cultural activists, through several researches and studies carried out in communities, have agreed that the recent effect of climate change on weather conditions could also be the cause of endangerment of thousands of languages before 2030. Climate change is a newly found factor that’s still hiding in the microscopic view of the geologists and not is not fully a burden to the linguistes yet. Not everyone is noticing its effects on the seven thousand languages in the world. know the damages it has caused For instance, Communities in Torres Straits in Australia are handcuffed with threats that climate change poses to them. The community is located on an island and has severely been eroded by floods. Although Torres Strait is well known for its cultural practices and these practices define their total way of life but the social impact of climate on the inhabitants of Torres Strait is that outdoor activities will become increasingly restricted to cooler times or cooler locations. As a community, they exemplify their culture by engaging themselves in outdoor activities which define their culture. But climate change is a daring reality to their existence. Therefore, native speakers are worried. The old is worried about their language. The young are worried about their lives on the island.

Also, few languages are spoken by the Sulawesi subgroup, a community found on the island in Indonesia that is on the verge of endangerment. Riehl, in his article, states that Sulawesi’s story is, both of linguistic diversity and language endangerment. Like the Sulawesi, Tetete and some languages are prone to endangerment because of the rise in sea level or frequent drought that has prompted thousands to migrate to another city entirely different from theirs. As listed out by Anastasia Riehl in a journal, some communities are located on islands and coastlines vulnerable to hurricanes and a rise in sea levels. And those who found their settlement on lands are not safe either. They are vulnerable to increases in temperature and fluctuations in precipitation. These were the words of Rehil when reflecting the pain, struggles of these people as regards climate change. Therefore, if migration could cause gradual abandonment and cultural assimilation of an individual’s language, then incessant flooding, increase in the sea level, excess drought could also be the prominent reason people migrate to a community or city whose language is entirely different from theirs.

Climate Change, a one-time illusion or an escapade in the facade of oceans and desert, is now a reality in Africa. It is a reality that is causing dread to oral languages spoken to some communities at the crest of the desert or ocean. In our beloved continent, some communities in the West, which are largely engulfed by frequent rainfall, Eastern and Northern part __with high prevailing drought and other factors of desertification are easily prone to climate change. The observed changes in temperature and rainfall are affecting most communities According to the United Nations, West Africa has been identified as a change hotspot, with climate change likely to lessen crop yields and production.

Climate change, with many actions and foreshadowing, is taking a lead role as it affects communities in West Africa. The mighty Lake Chad is drying up. Drought and desertification have shrunk the volume of water in Lake Chad to its thinnest form. The lake which is known for its volume and identified as the most versatile lake in the world barely supports humanities due to the shrinking state. For instance, the Mbororo people are a pastoral community. It is located at the bank of Lake Chad. The shrinking state has led to the cause of great migration among young people and the elders remaining in the community are few. There is nobody to transfer the Mbororo traditional knowledge and culture to among the youth. Climate change has caused men in Mbororo to migrate to another urban area__ places far away from home. Therefore, the climate is one of the factors that cause massive displacement of people with common heritage and culture of people.

Also, loss of biodiversity has a great impact on language loss. If climate change could tousle thousands of aquatic species to leave the world and also prompted the special breeding of mammals and plants to be endangered as well, how much of a culturally organized or linguistically diverse community? Nothing would remains__not even a language or cultural aesthetics, when natural disasters take action to grovel a community. A change in the weather pattern will surely affect the environment prone to natural disasters and people living in such an environment. Dusner, a language spoken in Papua Guinea of Indonesia, is highly endangered due to the incessant flood that wiped the whole community. The highly endangered Austrnesian language is left with three fluent native speakers. The death of the native speakers due to the flood that occurred in 2010 has reduced the strength of the Dusner language among every other language spoken in the world. Another example is the languages spoken by the Andaman Islands. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami caused the death of languages across the island.

Nothing surpasses the surreal of an embellished language and its uniformity until climate change came. It came with its mind and started throwing languages into the bin of endangerment. it becomes endangered in the hollow of climate change. A change in the weather pattern would affect people’s adaptation to the environment and an unfavourable increase in the temperature, rising of the sea and expansive drought in a community could challenge the existence of the language in the community and frequent disasters like flood, volcanic eruption, a hurricane could lead to the death of the native speakers in such community. Therefore, with rising temperatures, horrible fragrances of diseases are released and thus leading to the death of many people. Climate change is not only affecting important things around us but also tampering with our linguistic diversity, prompting them to be forcefully endangered.

The climate is changing. It is bringing thousands of biodiversity to nothing. Although most people panic about many things: the weather conditions, the endangered aquatic or plants species, but only few people can see that not only aquatic species, plant species, humans are dying or being affected by climate change. Language is dying. Linguistic diversities and cultural aesthetics are at the verge of endangerment too.