Introduction

Climate System

Causes of Climate Change

Empirical Study of Climate

Climate Modelling

Palaeoclimatic Change

Contemporary Climate Change

Epilogue
Appendix
References

Records for the last 4,500 years generally indicate that temperatures were lower than the Holocene thermal maximum. A general cooling, known as the Iron Age neoglaciation, occurred between 2,500 and 4,500 years ago. A moderate climate amelioration followed near the dawn of the Roman Empire, before a return to cooler climates during the second half of the first millennia A.D. (the Dark Ages). Thence followed the Medieval optimum (1100 to 1300 A.D.), in which European temperatures reached some of the warmest levels for the last 4,000 years.

Pre-Quaternary
 -Precambrian
 -Phanerozoic
  ·Palaeozoic
  ·Mesozoic
  ·Cenozoic

Quaternary
 -Pleistocene
  ·Orbital Variations
  ·CO2 Feedbacks
  ·Coupled System
 -Holocene
  ·Younger Dryas
  ·Holocene Warmth
  ·Neoglaciation
  ·Little Ice Age
  ·Climate Forcing