The change which is apparently happening - which isn't happening by the way - is minuscule. The earth has seen vastly different climates from the current one, and much more hostile ones.
For example, the in Triassic period, most of the earth was a hot, dry, desert. The south pole was sea, and the land mass which is now there was a tropical rainforest, which froze in the permanent night it got in the winter. There have been ice ages too. All this without any human influence, but if humans raise the earth's temperature by 2*C it will be a disaster. FAT CHANCE!
If we want to continue living on this planet we need to adapt to the changes as they come, because much worse than we can do will be upon us in the future. We need to become more diverse too, can't keep all our eggs in one basket. The only reason life survived past the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period is because some of the diverse range of species could handle it.
Prior to that it was seen as a 'rich mans club' of sorts.