Flexi Says: Earth’s climate has repeatedly changed in earlier epochs because of natural disturbances, such as massive volcanic eruptions and movements of continents. Over the past couple of centuries, the most important cause of climate change has been human actions, which are rapidly adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This is causing an enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming. The rapid pace of current global warming is causing significant observable changes to ecosystems, weather patterns, sea level, oceans, and other aspects of the Earth system. When the environment changes rapidly, species may not have time to adapt and may go extinct. The loss of many species can trigger a collapse of ecosystems and mass extinction events. Evidence shows that some past mass extinction events were caused by rapid climate change, and that species are currently going extinct at an alarming rate.
