Query: nothing we can do to stop the Earth’s naturally occurring climate cycles.

Relevant passages:
Earth <=SEP=> Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets .   According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation .   Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics .   Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .

Ice age <=SEP=> An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .

Natural environment <=SEP=> The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally , meaning in this case not artificial . The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth . This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species , climate , weather , and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity .   The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components :  Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention , including all vegetation , microorganisms , soil , rocks , atmosphere , and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature  Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries , such as air , water , and climate , as well as energy , radiation , electric charge , and magnetism , not originating from civilized human activity   In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment . In such areas where man has fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion , the natural environment is greatly modified into a simplified human environment . Even acts which seem less extreme , such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert , modify the natural environment into an artificial one . Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves , they are not human , hence beaver dams and the works of Mound-building termites are thought of as natural .   People seldom find absolutely natural environments on Earth , and naturalness usually varies in a continuum , from 100 % natural in one extreme to 0 % natural in the other . More precisely , we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment , and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform . If , for instance , in an agricultural field , the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil , but the structure is quite different .   Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat . For instance , when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna .

John D. Hamaker <=SEP=> John D. Hamaker ( 1914 -- 1994 ) , was an American mechanical engineer , ecologist , agronomist and science writer in the fields of soil regeneration , rock dusting , mineral cycles , climate cycles and glaciology .