CLIMATIC-CHANGE AND THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

For millennia, the climate in different parts of the Earth has been su bject to cyclic changes of varying duration whose nature is not entire ly clear. On the basis of the newest glaciological and oceanological d ata, global changes of temperature and gas composition of the atmosphe re over the last climatic cycle are described and a strict correlation between them is demonstrated. The nature of changes of geographic zon es and landscapes in the northern hemisphere during the Upper Pleistoc ene and Holocene is shown on the strength of palaeographic analysis. P roofs are given of climatic changes and glacierization in the twentiet h century, and the progress and possible causes of the rise of the wor ld ocean level are analysed. Using the well-known forecast of a global temperature rise in the twenty-first century, we consider possible pa tterns of change in natural conditions in the north, in temperate zone s and in southern latitudes of the northern hemisphere. It is stressed that anticipated global warming will not necessarily lead to a global environmental crisis, but will signify a transition to new conditions calling for a profound adaptation of society.