Climate Change and Life

Explores the deep connections between climate change and the evolution and extinction patterns of life on Earth Climate Change and Life covers the critical tectonic and biogeochemical cycles that drive climate and shape the modern world. It also compares the climate histories of Earth, Venus and Mars, and explores the limits of habitability in the Universe. This book is multidisciplinary and will instruct readers on the range of extremes in climate and biogeochemical cycling that shape life on Earth. Topics covered include the atmospheric and orbital controls of climate, how we measure past climate change, major evolutionary events, mass extinctions, the evolution of humans and their increasing impact on global climate, and future climate and the fate of global ecosystems. Climate Change and Life takes a long view on climate and evolution while also focusing on the defining moments in Earth history when critical thresholds and events occur. Scientists and students alike interested in climate change, earth and environmental sciences, and other areas related to climate change will find value in the concepts and examples presented in this book.

• Examines the link between climate change and extinctions in the geosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere
• Explores the concept of ecological resilience, the principal reason why the Earth has remained continuously inhabited by organisms for almost four billion years
• Discusses how the ongoing influences of climate change will continue to shape a planet that will head toward extremes