Conclusions

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years, there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 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.

Humanity has not always understood that climate changes may have been due to natural causes and there was nothing people could do about them. They attributed them to divine interventions, wrath of gods and tried to appease them, or the devil or aliens meddling in our earthly affairs. Mother Nature invariably took care of the climate and things always returned to “normal,” though not necessarily at the same places and for the same people. We will not live long enough to see Nature reacting to the changes and taking care of the system. That is exactly why quite a few books on the Arctic have the word “imperative” in them. If we do not act now, we are heading toward a disaster, and knowingly at that.