Climate change - Human Impact, Causes, Effects

climate change

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Earth system
Evidence for climate change
Causes of climate change
- Solar variability
- Volcanic activity
- Tectonic activity
- Orbital (Milankovich) variations
- Greenhouse gases
- Feedback
- Human activities
Climate change within a human life span
- Seasonal variation
- Interannual variation
- Decadal variation
Climate change since the emergence of civilization
- Centennial-scale variation
- Millennial and multimillennial variation
  - Thermal maxima
  - ENSO variation in the Holocene
  - Amplification of the Indian Ocean monsoon
Climate change since the advent of humans
- Recent glacial and interglacial periods
  - The most recent glacial phase
  - The Last Glacial Maximum
  - The last deglaciation
  - Climate change and the emergence of agriculture
- Glacial and interglacial cycles of the Pleistocene
- The last great cooling
Climate change through geologic time
- Cenozoic climates
- Phanerozoic climates
- Climates of early Earth
  - Faint young Sun paradox
  - Photosynthesis and atmospheric chemistry
  - Snowball Earth hypothesis
Abrupt climate changes in Earth history

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

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The history of humanity—from the initial appearance of genus Homo over 2,000,000 years ago to the advent and expansion of the modern human species (Homo sapiens) beginning some 150,000 years ago—is integrally linked to climate variation and change. Homo sapiens has experienced nearly two full glacial-interglacial cycles, but its global geographical expansion, massive population increase, cultural diversification, and worldwide ecological domination began only during the last glacial period and accelerated during the last glacial-interglacial transition. The first bipedal apes appeared in a time of climatic transition and variation, and Homo erectus, an extinct species possibly ancestral to modern humans, originated ...(100 of 12125 words)

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