Climate Change

This chapter comprehensively explores climate change, tracing its natural cycles over millions of years and the accelerated impacts of human activities since the Industrial Revolution. It begins by outlining Earth’s historical climatic variations, driven by factors such as Milankovitch cycles, tectonic shifts, and feedback mechanisms. Key epochs, like the Pliocene Warm Period and the Pleistocene glaciations, highlight the natural drivers of global temperature fluctuations and their ecological and geological consequences. The chapter then shifts to anthropogenic influences, emphasizing the role of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, industrial processes, and deforestation. Empirical evidence underscores the unprecedented rate of global warming since the twentieth century, marked by rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and melting ice sheets. It discusses climate models, feedback mechanisms, and future projections, warning of severe socio-economic and ecological impacts. Finally, the chapter examines historical civilizations affected by climatic shifts and contemporary vulnerabilities, emphasizing the urgency for mitigation and adaptation strategies to address this global challenge.