Paleoclimate modelling from the faint young Sun to the Anthropocene

Climate models are crucial for our understanding of the Earth system and its past evolution because they enable us to investigate the most relevant processes and feedbacks, and to put proxy evidence into temporal and spatial context. I will present examples for paleoclimate modelling work spanning Earth’s entire history and broadly relating to planetary habitability, global glaciations, mass extinction events, and past hothouse periods. Finally, I will put the modern climate crisis into this historical context and offer a few personal thoughts on the relevance for the past for our future.

Short bio: Georg Feulner is Deputy Head of the Department Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, Germany) where he leads working groups on climate model development and Earth’s climate history. Georg studied physics at the University of Cambridge (UK) and University of Munich (LMU, Germany) where he also obtained his PhD, and teaches at the University of Potsdam (Germany). Georg's research focuses on climate modelling, deep-time paleoclimatology (in particular the climate on early Earth, Snowball Earth episodes, past greenhouse climates and climate changes during mass-extinction events) as well as present and future climate change.

Hompepage:  https://www.pik-potsdam.de/members/feulner