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The term "climate change" is often used to describe the impact of human-caused pollution on the earth's climate, but is important to understand that climate change is also caused by natural phenomena. | The term "climate change" is often used to describe the impact of human-caused pollution on the earth's climate, but is important to understand that climate change is also caused by natural phenomena. | ||
File:Http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Phanerozoic Climate Change.png | |||
History of Ice Ages | History of Ice Ages | ||
The earth's climate is subject to large fluctuations. The climate is dominated by ices ages,<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation]</ref> which reduce the earth's surface temperature and cover large parts of the surface in ice sheets. There have only been five ice ages to date, that have lasted from 30 million up to 300 million years. The most recent one occurred during to "Quaternary", which started about 2.5 million years ago and is still lasting. In between ice ages, the poles are not covered by glaciers and the temperature is higher. The climate is quite stable in these periods, however during ice ages strong variations occur. These variations are called glacial (cold) and interglacial (hot) periods.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation]</ref> Glacial and interglacial periods alternate every 5,000-15,000 years. The current interglacial period started 14,000 years ago. | The earth's climate is subject to large fluctuations. The climate is dominated by ices ages,<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation]</ref> which reduce the earth's surface temperature and cover large parts of the surface in ice sheets. There have only been five ice ages to date, that have lasted from 30 million up to 300 million years. The most recent one occurred during to "Quaternary", which started about 2.5 million years ago and is still lasting. In between ice ages, the poles are not covered by glaciers and the temperature is higher. The climate is quite stable in these periods, however during ice ages strong variations occur. These variations are called glacial (cold) and interglacial (hot) periods.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_glaciation]</ref> Glacial and interglacial periods alternate every 5,000-15,000 years. The current interglacial period started 14,000 years ago. | ||
== Climate change mitigation == | == Climate change mitigation == |