Take a look at this striking animation, which depicts humanity's treatment of Earth over the preceding 100 years and presents a view of what the planet could look like over the next 100 years if the existing trend in greenhouse-gas emissions continued.
As the animation explains, the article argues that we are already unavoidably exposed to disruptive effects of climate change and therefore have no choice but to adapt to those changes. What matters, however, is that alongside adaptation to existing conditions, we must also try to reduce the factors intensifying those changes—mitigation.
One possible approach described in the source is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions enough that the increase in Earth's average temperature by the end of the century is limited to about 2°C. The author argues that this is achievable and depends on our collective effort: greenhouse-gas emissions must be reduced.
To keep the rise in Earth's average temperature below 2°C by the end of the century, the source states that humanity could emit only another 250 billion tonnes of carbon during the remainder of the twenty-first century. At the time, it says, approximately 10 billion tonnes of carbon per year were being added to the atmosphere.
At that rate, the article concludes, the remaining allowance would be exhausted in only about 25 years—around Solar Hijri year 1417—and emissions beyond that amount would imply still greater warming and greater exposure to its harmful effects.