Causes of Global Change
Human activities are rapidly changing in the rate and magnitude of Earth system processes, and have resulted in observable, measurable changes in the Earth system, especially over the last 150 years. Rapid non-human causes change, such as meteorite impacts and major volcanic eruptions are rare, but when they do happen they can have catastrophic consequences throughout the Earth system. Some of the non-human causes of change affect the Earth on timescales of tens of thousands to millions of years, and do not explain the rapid global changes we are observing today.
Click the icons below to learn more about the human and non-human causes of global change. Each page links to related topics on the UGC Infographic. Sort the icons by human and non-human causes by clicking the buttons below.