We could be on the verge of our most momentous evolutionary shift. For, as a species, we no longer need be subject to the primitive competitive instinct. As animals this drive may have compelled us to compete for control of what hindsight indicated to be the scarce resources we needed to survive, without serious concern for our effects on the wider world. But as intelligent, self-conscious beings we certainly do have a choice. …
“We can read the unbroken record of the Earth’s atmosphere that extends back over the last 800,000 years. In all that time, the amount of CO2 in the air never rose above 300th’s of 1%. That is, until the turn of the 20th century. It’s been going up steadily and rapidly ever since.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: A Spacetime …