Talk it out: Is climate change already irreversible?

Divya George. Credit: Special Arrangement

Shalmali Sirsi. Credit: Special Arrangement

Topic: Is climate change already irreversible?

For

Shalmali Sirsi, 13

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Far away on an iceberg at the South Pole, Louis and his flock of emperor penguins have a problem on their flippers… their iceberg is melting. This is the premise of John Kotter’s book 'Our Iceberg Is Melting', first published in 2006. But today, it's our unfortunate reality.

We are wrecking Earth. From destroying the entire ecosystem and driving species extinct to acidifying the oceans, the impact is real and potentially irreversible.

Climate change isn’t a 'future' problem. Melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels are proving that it's very difficult to reverse it, and it is not clear yet that even the most aggressive climate change mitigation strategies would work. We have lost 160 species in the past 10 years and there is absolutely no way of bringing them back.

The longer we wait to take action, the more difficult & expensive it will become to reverse the effect of climate change.

Against:

Divya George, 15

Bengaluru, Karnataka

"We have a single mission: to protect and hand on the planet to the next generation," said Francoise Hollande, the former France president.

As population increases, the problem of climate change also intensifies. But I believe that by standing together, we can fix this world. Due to climate change, deforestation, natural disasters like floods and earthquakes, expansion of deserts are increasing day by day.

We human beings are ruining our own ecosystem. We often release harmful gases when we burn coal, oil, plastic and this increases pollution. Is it the right thing to do? Many claim that we have no solutions to this problem.

But climate change can be mitigated when we follow reforestation, reduce unnecessary pollution, and reduce the number of grazing animals. We must grow crops instead. This is an adverse cycle that we must prevent from global warming because there is no other planet we can live on.