Climate change and global warming are a reality that mankind has come to grips with in order to survive. Although "Global Warming" has become a household term loosely used to refer to problems such as desertification, droughts or flooding, depending on th geographic position, the assumption that in fact it is an "invention" of the 20 century is a common misapprehension. There has been global warming - and cooling - for as long as Earth has existed (i.e. more than 4 billion years) as is evident from a rock record showing alternating glacial and subtropical to tropical deposits. For instance, some 230 million years ago, towards the end of the Permian era, global warming led to a worldwide catastrophe, which only about 15 % of all then living organisms survived, leaving a barren and depopulated Earth to recover slowly from its impact. The natural causes behind this global disaster s (e.g. volcanic activity) still exist today, and just because during Man’s short life span of less than 100 000 years the Earth's climate has been comparatively stable, it does not follow that change has stopped to happen - or that it is in our hands to prevent it! All we can do is try not to make it happen too quickly, so as to ensure amenable living conditions on this planet at least for some time to come!