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Hardly anyone is unmoved by the issue of climate change. Yet climate change is an important part of the earth's development. It has led to the most severe mass extinctions in the history of the planet, but also created complex life and was partly responsible for the explosion in biodiversity. Climate change has enormous potential - for better or for worse. Palm trees at the poles and crocodiles lying in the shade beneath them because it is hot; extremely hot - this is not a glimpse into our climate's future, but into the earth's history. For hundreds of millions of years, our earth was hot, so hot that we could not have existed at all. Then again, there were ice ages that were so powerful that the ice sheets pushed up to the equator. Both would have been fatal for humans. Nevertheless, we owe our existence to these extremes. Without climate change, there would be no multicellular life, no biodiversity, no humans. But also: without climate change, there would be no mass extinctions, no empty oceans. A total of five times, the earth's climate tipped so dramatically that gigantic mass extinctions occurred, which only a few species survived. What was a catastrophe for some was also good for our species. Without the massive mass extinctions, evolution would have taken a different path. And who knows whether we would have appeared on the scene in the end. This raises the question: is climate change perhaps better than its reputation? And what distinguishes all these climate changes from the current one? Can we learn something for the future from those of the past? Science documentary series (D 2023, 28 min) #climatechange #opportunity #threat Video available until 03/03/2027 Link to the media library: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/109816-... Subscribe to ARTE's YouTube channel: / artede Follow us on social networks: Facebook: / arte.tv Twitter: / artede Instagram: / arte.tv