What is Paleoclimatology?

Paleoclimatology is the study of the Earth’s past climates. While we have temperature records for several decades into the past, the Earth has been around and thriving for millions of years. Before we had thermometers and other measures to collect data about our climate, there was no way of recording temperature, weather, or climate. Thankfully, scientists have been able to obtain proxy records (approximate records of climate) from the Earth itself. By examining tree rings, ice cores, coral reefs, and the sediment at the bottom of bodies of water scientists can find out a lot about what was happening on the Earth thousands of years ago. Holli riebeek related paleoclimatology to a crime scene and how detectives put clues and pieces of evidence together (Paleoclimatology: Introduction, 2005). Scientists take clues from what they discover about the past and piece together the Earth’s past climate.

Why would we want to know about the Earth’s climate thousands of years ago? Knowing about the past and how the Earth has experienced climate previously is instrumental in figuring out where our Earth is headed in the future. Climate change is happening, fast, and by looking into the past scientists are able to see if there are trends, or patterns that we may be falling into. It can also help us estimate how much of human activity is effecting climate change, and how much could be just natural.

To read all of Holli Riebeek’s Paleoclimatology: Introduction click here!