One of the many fascinating and wonderful things about our planet Earth is that its climate is always changing. For literally billions of years, life on Earth has been influencing the planet’s changing climate. In fact, ancient microbes caused Earth’s first ever global warming.  The earliest photosynthetic microorganisms belched out enough methane to warm the planet by 15°C. This bout of global warming may have saved Earth from freezing over and created a comfortable climate for early organisms. Other climatic changes in the Earth’s history have been triggered by the changing configuration of continents and oceans, changes in the Sun’s intensity, variations in the orbit of Earth, and volcanic eruptions.

Climate change resulting from recent and current human activities is happening much faster than it ever has before, which means that many species (including humans) are struggling to adapt to the impacts of climate change. If humanity can meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions then we can slow and even reverse the current warming trend.

So while the Earth’s climate has always been changing over very long timescales – such as glacial and inter-glacial periods – and it will continue to do so, humanity does have the power to fix the current warming trend through global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.