Man-Made Global Warming
It is generally held that Islam and science are separate from one another, the subject of Islam being different from the subjects of science. But there is one respect in which Islam and science are in total conformity with one another.
And that is, that what science is now making known through its discoveries has already been made known in Islam through revelation. The difference is only that Islam had made these predictions about things 15 hundred years ago in the 7th century AD, while science has discovered these same things only in recent centuries and particularly at the beginning of the 21st century. The Quran, the revealed book of God, directly addresses this issue. It says:
“Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of the evil which men’s hands have done: and so He will make them taste the fruit of some of their doings, so that they may turn back from evil.” (30: 41)
According to the above verse of the Quran corruption in the land and sea (referring to global warming) is man-made. Scientists from all over the world are repeatedly emphasizing that global warming is man-made.
The Sixth Assessment of the IPCC Climate Report emphasized that climate change is of human origin and is global in nature. The Hindu (August 17, 2021) reports: The impact of climate change on the atmosphere, oceans and land is unmistakably of human origin and this impact is picking up pace. It is a striking fact that there is no part of the inhabited world that is now untouched by the impact of global warming.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC report in 2007 came under the main heading: ‘Global warming is man-made’. All these reports seem to be an interpretation of the above Quranic verse: man-made corruption has spread on land and sea. This report also tells us that the atmosphere of the earth has now heated up to a degree far higher than that of the pre-industrial age. The level of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will soon be doubled.
This report also tells us that because of this heat, the polar ice and the glaciers on the mountains are continuously melting. As we all know, there are huge ice caps at both the north and south poles. These are vast reservoirs of fresh water; but they are now melting at an alarming rate. Also, there are huge mountain-top glaciers, gigantic storehouses of drinking water, which, as a consequence of global warming, are likewise rapidly melting and their stored water is draining off into the oceans through the rivers.
Due to this, the level of water in the seas is rising. It is feared that in the near future this will rise by as much as one metre and there will be the risk of the coastal areas being submerged. On the other hand, the non-coastal areas will suffer from an intolerable water shortage.
The report further tells us that the dangerous changes occurring in our world are resulting in irreversible damage. That is, there is no remedy for this process.
The report also tells us that, as a result of these changes, the earth will be hit by draughts, which will seriously affect the life support system. All these occurrences are a direct result of human activities. According to the report, “We are endangering all species on earth; we are endangering the future of the human race.”
What is happening is not simply a matter of climate change. It is, in fact, a warning by the Creator. It is an intimation in advance of something which is going to take place in the very near future. It is meant to bring man to his senses, so that he may reform himself and save himself from God’s chastisement.
God provided for all kinds of necessary things in this world, but these things were not meant to be luxuries. They were meant, rather, to be merely facilities. For the truth is that God made this world purely as a preparatory ground, and man was required to build in it a heavenly personality, so that he might inhabit the next eternal world of Paradise. But man mistook those things provided by his Maker to be luxuries and, instead of preparing himself for paradise, he began building a ‘paradise’ in this world itself.
God continued to send warnings of different kinds, but man could not be brought to his senses. In this way, he forfeited the justification, in the eyes of God, to stay in this world for a further period of time. Apparently, now the time has come when this world should be terminated and man should be brought to book and be held accountable on the Day of Judgement.
