Impending doom

This is with reference to the article “A burning issue that can’t be doused soon” (Aug. 17).

Well, I believe that the world’s leaders and scientists are now delaying in telling us that the inevitable is the new normal — that climate change and the erratic effects are here to stay and we must learn to accept that there is no going back to the times when the climate was tame.

True, the fires and floods everywhere have caused great devastation to the most vulnerable in the affected countries. The most vulnerable are the people who live alone and homeless, but also the animals and birds. Some images that were doing the rounds from the Amazon and Australia fires showed charred animals, burnt alive.

When we talk of climate change we only talk about how it affects the human species. We talk about the floods that cause devastation to our land and houses, how the coastline will shrink because of rising waters and how people will die of rising temperatures. But little is said about the other living creatures that will face the same fate and worse. While humans can understand that these are the consequences of their actions, the animals are not culpable.

The earth will continue long after we have perished at our hands. Hasn’t the earth recovered from the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs? I believe when science speaks of climate change, it means humans. And there’s a certain peace in knowing that the most invasive species of the planet is under threat of their own undoing.

Abilasha D
By email