ABSTRACT
This chapter provides insight into the physical processes of climate change as well as the anthropogenic component and its overall significance to the problem. Based on the nature of the earth's natural processes, there is already substantial evidence that climate change is well underway, and the society as a whole can no longer ignore the issue and sit on the sidelines. Climate change is a term used to refer to the increase of the earth's average surface temperature, due largely to a buildup of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of the world's rain forests. More than 2500 of the world's most renowned climatologists, represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), support the concept of climate change and agree that there is absolutely no scientific doubt that the atmosphere is warming. The carbon cycle is an extremely important earth cycle and plays a critical role in climate change.
