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The Petm: A Window Into Earth's Future Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski
The Petm: A Window Into Earth's Future Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski
Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is not just an event that occurred in Earth’s distant past (~55 million years ago) but is a crucial lesson for today’s meteoric climate change. The PETM offers a historical parallel of rapid flux of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that caused global warming, ocean acidification, dramatic changes in weather, and extinctions. This global warming event was the result of 20,000 years of “rapid” warming (in geological terms) however, we are experiencing rates of warming that are 5-10x higher than PETM levels. We are not experiencing rapid warming today, in comparison to the past, we …
The Human Legacy: Agriculture, Civilizations, Strife, And Pandemics Changing Our Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski
The Human Legacy: Agriculture, Civilizations, Strife, And Pandemics Changing Our Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski
Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26
For most of human history, climate has shaped our lives, while our influence on it remained minimal. However, the notion that early humans had no measurable impact on the climate before industrialization is inaccurate. Early in human history, activities – such as the rise of agriculture, the growth of civilizations, periods of conflict, and pandemics – altered greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. These changes contributed to significant periods of climate change long before the burning of fossil fuels set us on the path to today’s global climate crisis.