Environmental Change

The Earth’s climate evolved through various stages with changes that sometimes occurred gradually and at other times abruptly. They were caused by natural variations in CO₂ levels associated with biogeochemical cycles and incoming solar radiation modulated by orbital variations. Human civilization thrived in the most recent warm period, but as we entered the Anthropocene, a single species began to alter the global climate signicantly for the first time in Earth’s history, thus causing numerous challenges for future generations.
Records of the interactions between Earth’s internal processes with the biosphere and with physico-chemical earth-surface processes throughout the entire Earth history are stored in sediments - they hold the key to understanding how past and future environmental change altered and will continue to alter the Earth’s surface.