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This page is out of date. Click here to visit our new site. Where weather is short term and local, the long term average of weather over a wide area is called climate. Changes in climate have very important effects upon all life on Earth, including humans, and life, including humans, have an important effect on the climate. It is the release and absorbtion of carbon dioxide by life, and by the rocks and oceans of the Earth, as well as changes in the Earth's orbit round the Sun, and changes in the Sun itself, all of which affect the climate. We need to understand the long term patterns of the climate, and use those patterns to predict what will happen.The graph shows 10 different reconstructions of the climate during the past 1000 years. It is fairly clear that for most of that time the temperature was cooling. The Earth was probably heading for another ice age, and in fact there were very cold winters around 1600. But in 1750 people in Britain and elsewhere began to burn coal as the industrial revolution began. This release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which began to warm the climate via the Greenhouse Effect. Current trends indicate that the Earth's temperate is going to increase higher than it has ever been in the history of the Earth. We have little idea what the consequences will be, except that mass movements of people and probably wars will result. I deal with this in more detail under Climate Threats. Useful LinksClick for Further information about Climate Other History of the Universe Pages News about History of the Universe |
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Physical Environment > Climate
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