Climate Change Crisis: Challenges and Options

Humanity is facing its most serious existential crisis on planet earth which is witnessing its most dramatic climatic change since the ice age. The threat posed by global warming caused by societal activity now looms large. Apart from other effects, average global temperatures may rise to levels at which human survival itself may be in question. Since the dawn of civilization, human activity has of course always impacted upon the environment. Some people' may believe that the current problem is only an extension of such impact and that nature will somehow, as in past historical periods, restore the requisite balance. But if the planetary ecosystem is damaged beyond a certain extent, then, like any living organism, it may lose its ability to recover by itself or through external intervention. As we shall see the scientific evidence suggests strongly that we may today be dangerously close to this 'tipping point" beyond which the damage may become irreversible.