Mini Review
Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century, driven predominantly by anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, rapid urbanization, and industrialization, which contribute to elevated atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. These emissions have intensified the greenhouse effect, accelerated global warming and caused significant alterations in Earth's climate. Environmental geoscience plays a pivotal role in understanding the complex interactions among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, thereby providing critical insights into climate dynamics and Earth system processes. This mini-review synthesizes current scientific knowledge of the primary causes and far-reaching impacts of climate change, while emphasizing the contributions of environmental geoscience to addressing these challenges through both mitigation and adaptation strategies. The study is based on secondary data derived from recent scholarly literature, with a particular focus on geohazards, carbon sequestration techniques, and sustainable natural resource management. Key findings reveal a consistent trend of rising global temperatures, an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves, and ongoing sea-level rise driven by glacier melt and ocean thermal expansion, all of which pose severe threats to ecosystems, infrastructure, and human livelihoods. Furthermore, geoscientific approaches, including carbon capture and storage (CCS), geothermal energy exploration, mineral carbonation, and advanced geohazard mapping, have emerged as effective tools for reducing emissions and enhancing resilience. The review concludes that integrating environmental geoscience with climate policy, technological innovation, and sustainable development frameworks is essential to achieving long-term environmental sustainability, disaster risk reduction, and global climate resilience.
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