Earth's Climate: A Story of Change

Our planet's story is a story of climate. It has never been static. In the beginning,

Earth was a hellish landscape. Volcanoes dominated the skyline. They spewed carbon

dioxide and other gases into the primordial atmosphere. This created a powerful greenhouse effect.

It trapped the sun's heat. It kept the young Earth from freezing solid.

This was the first, natural climate change. A delicate balance between a fiery

core and a cooling crust. <break time="4.0s" /> For billions of years, the climate was

unstable. Then, life appeared. Tiny organisms in the oceans began

to do something extraordinary. They performed photosynthesis. They consumed carbon dioxide from the