Global warming: It's too late to do anything?

"The extinction of the Australian megafauna was probably the first significant mark Homo Sapiens left on our planet. "

"Within 2000 years of the Sapiens arrival, most of these unique species were gone. According to current estimates, within that short interval, North America lost thirty-four out of its forty-seven genera of large mammals. South America lost fifty out of sixty "

"Homo Sapiens drove to extinction about half of the planet's big beasts long before humans invented the wheel, writing, or iron tools."

"We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology. Perhaps if more people were aware of the First Wave and Second Wave extinctions, they'd be less nonchalant about the Third Wave they are part of. "

The above are excerpts from the book Sapiens: A brief history of Humankind  by Yuval Noah Harari.

They clearly sum up the first question - Should we do something?

Global Warming is a truth, a situation which, even if not created by us, we are an active part of. If we want the existence of our species any further, intervention in our ways of life is needed to be able to reverse the effects of global warming.

People argue, it is already too late, even if we stop greenhouse emissions totally the global temperatures will still be on the rise for at least a decade. We must note here, it is not just one particular aspect that needs to be considered. It is the collective efforts of the millions of sapiens inhabiting the earth that we are hoping to count upon.And how that will scale out cannot be estimated.

Let us recall a few incidents around the globe where people took nature into their hands.

Minas Gerais : Man made Madagascar.

Minas Gerais is 70 miles inland from Brazil’s Atlantic coast, in the Maine-size valley of the freshwater river Rio Doce. Once facing extreme conditions due to deforestation the place is now comparable to paradise. Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado and wife Lélia have replanted an entire forest over the last 20 years on this island. Along with being a lifeline for the flora and fauna who returned to the place, the rejuvenation has also had an impact on the ecosystem and climate, bringing back several once dried-up springs in the drought-prone area, and positively affecting local temperatures.

View of the island over time.

Molai Kathoni forest: A one-man-made forest .

Majuli is the biggest river island in the world. Majuli has shrunk over the past 70 years by more than half. There are concerns that it could be submerged within the next 20 years. To fight this, in 1980, the Assam Forestry Division of Golaghat district began a plan to reforest 200 hectares of the forest in one of the sandbars of the Brahmaputra river. However, the program was sadly abandoned in 1983. After that, the forest was single-handedly attended by Jadav Payeng during the course of over 30 years. What is now known as the Molai forest now encompasses an area of about 1,360 acres/550 hectares of forest. Jadav Payeng upgraded a chapori of the river Brahmaputra to a reserve forest all by himself.
China already has the largest human-made forest in the world. The forest is known as the Great Green Wall. This man-made forest has been designed to stop desertification and fight climate change. This Chinese forest is meant to eventually cover more than 42 percent of China’s landmass.

The technological advancements of humankind have enabled us to imagine colonizing other planets in more than just dreams, with timelines and a plan. How hard can saving the paradise we were once gifted with can be? The above examples clearly bring forth the power of will and work.

As national geographic mentions : Over the past 30 years humans have made progress in stopping damage to the ozone layer by curbing the use of certain chemicals. But more remains to be done to protect and restore the atmospheric shield that sits in the stratosphere about 9 to 18 miles (15 to 30 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

There is still hope.

Maybe it is too late to do anything, but it is definitely not the time to do nothing.