Copernicus Climate Change Service

Abstract

The Anthropocene represents discontinuity in the tight connection that has always linked survival of human societies to the environment around them. But alongside the undeniable human-induced alteration of the global environment the last couple of centuries have given humans an unprecedented ability to monitor, simulate and predict the climate around us. It is over the course of the last two centuries that technological developments have allowed society to both alter the environment on a global scale and predict how the earth system responds to external and internal changes. Such a set of circumstances calls for a profound rethink of the relationship mankind has with the planet, something that would be impossible without a systematic, and operational production of datasets, tools and information about the past, current and future status of the global climate. Copernicus Climate Change Service aims to fill this gap whilst promoting the transition towards a climate smart society.