Studia Humanitatis (Oct 2024)
Anthropogenic climate change, climate disasters and the role of nature: with special focus on the year 536
Abstract
Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives. The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over recent millennia. It is undeniable that human activities have produced abundance of gases in the atmosphere that have trapped more of the Sun’s energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has earned the ocean and lands, which lead to widespread and rapid changes in the environment. In this paper there are analysed anthropogenic changes, nature’s own role and climate disasters in comparing the results obtained into perspective with incidents in the year 536.
