 Climate ChangeSangaralingam Ramesh
Chapter Chapter 4 in The Political Economy of Contemporary Human Civilisation, Volume I, 2025, pp 109-185 from Springer Abstract: Abstract 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. Date: 2025 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-84181-1_4 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-84181-1_4 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Springer Books from Springer |
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