Study of Climate Change and the Evidence in the Geological Record
One of the five thematic priorities of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) is ‘Global change and life evolution’. This relates to climate change impacts on water supplies, wildlife, the environment, and human society. Understanding climate trends relies heavily upon the preserved geological record of many rock types. By studying this record, Earth scientists are understanding how the climate works, how it has behaved in the past and how it may behave in future.  The project consists of 16 international active IGCP research and capacity-building projects related to climate change: Late Varsican Terrestrial Biotas and Palaeoenvironments; Deltas in the Monsoon Asia-Pacific Region; Monsoon Evolution and Tectonic-Climate Linkage in Asia; Dating Caspian Sea Level Change; Environmental Catastrophes; Middle Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biogeography; Palaeogeography and Climate; The Rise and Fall of the Vendian Biota; Quaternary Land-Ocean Interactions; Devonian land-sea interaction: Evolution of Ecosystems and Climate in the Devonian; Dryland Change: Past, Present, Future; Ordovician Palaeogeography and Palaeoclimate; Paleoclimates of the Cretaceous in Asia; Neoproterozoic Ice Ages; Black Sea Mediterranean Corridor during the last 30 ky: Sea level change and human adaptation; Reconstruction of the Past Coastal Environments and its Management; Rapid Environmental/Climate Change in the Cretaceous Greenhouse World.

UNESCO Sector: Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences
Responsible Staff:  Robert Missotten, Margarete Patzak
More information: http://www.unesco.org/science/earth/geo/globalChange.shtml