Over the past few years, the subject of climate change has been heavily discussed in the media, scientific research articles, and literature. In 2011, Richard Bean published his play “The Heretic,” which deals with the controversial topic of anthropogenic climate change. According to the dictionary by Oxford University Press (2016), anthropogenic means “originating in human activity”. He initiates his play by a claim made in 2007 by Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States. Speaking to the House Energy committee and the Senate Environment committee, he stated that “The science is settled” (Seabrook: 2007). Al Gore explained himself and clarified what he meant: that CO2 emissions are undoubtedly heating our planet’s atmosphere.
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While increasing temperatures are responsible for regular droughts and rising sea levels due to the melting of glaciers, the underlying cause of climate change, carbon dioxide, is a threat to the biodiversity of our oceans. Additionally, it will inevitably continue to cause significant climate perturbations over the next millennia. In respect thereof, climate change has caused irreversible harm. Yet, ‘irreversible’ should be considered as tantamount to ‘on a scale relevant to humankind’. During the PETM, the climate took about 150 000 years to recover from a high atmospheric CO2 concentration (Archer et al.: 2009: 118).Thus, technically Earth may not be damaged beyond repair. Bearing in mind that during that time, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions were not a contributing factor to the change in climate, it is hardly imaginable that our planet will ever recuperate with humans populating it. Nevertheless, we can lessen our impact on climate. As individuals, we should rely on public transportation to get to work in the morning. On a national basis, the Government should incite people to purchase electric cars by raising subsidies and international agreements to cut CO2 emissions should be implemented
While increasing temperatures are responsible for regular droughts and rising sea levels due to the melting of glaciers, the underlying cause of climate change, carbon dioxide, is a threat to the biodiversity of our oceans. Additionally, it will inevitably continue to cause significant climate perturbations over the next millennia. In respect thereof, climate change has caused irreversible harm. Yet, ‘irreversible’ should be considered as tantamount to ‘on a scale relevant to humankind’. During the PETM, the climate took about 150 000 years to recover from a high atmospheric CO2 concentration (Archer et al.: 2009: 118).Thus, technically Earth may not be damaged beyond repair. Bearing in mind that during that time, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions were not a contributing factor to the change in climate, it is hardly imaginable that our planet will ever recuperate with humans populating it. Nevertheless, we can lessen our impact on climate. As individuals, we should rely on public transportation to get to work in the morning. On a national basis, the Government should incite people to purchase electric cars by raising subsidies and international agreements to cut CO2 emissions should be implemented