What Caused the Ice Ages and Other Important Climate Changes Before the Industrial Era?
“Antarctic ice core data show that CO2 concentration is low in the cold glacial times (~190 ppm), and high in the warm interglacials (~280 ppm); atmospheric CO2 follows temperature changes in Antarctica with a lag of some hundreds of years…” Climate on Earth has changed on all time scales, including long before human activity could have played a role. Great progress has been made in understanding the causes and mechanisms of these climate changes. Changes in Earths radiation balance were the principal driver of past climate changes, but the causes of such changes are varied. For each case be it the Ice Ages, the warmth at the time of the dinosaurs or the fluctuations of the past millennium the specific causes must be established individually. In many cases, this can now be done with good confidence, and many past climate changes can be reproduced with quantitative models. Global climate is determined by the radiation balance of the planet (see FAQ 1.1). There are three fundamental wa
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- Frequently Asked Question 6.1 What Caused the Ice Ages and Other Important Climate Changes Before the Industrial Era?
- What are the astronomical causes of climate changes, such as the periodic occurrence of ice ages?
- What Caused the Ice Ages and Other Important Climate Changes Before the Industrial Era?
