PAST CLIMATE CHANGES: DIVULGATION & COMMUNICATION

The climate of our planet has always been subject to continuous changes in the geological past, strongly influencing the life of living beings. The scientific community in recent times has directed their research programs towards understanding the climate and its changes, including the great past variations, from ice ages to super-warm climate events. The knowledge of the past climate represents a priority to fill the gaps on climate mechanisms, some of which may reoccur in the near future. Since there is no paleo-analogue of current climate change, the study of fossil archives is the key to understand the climatic and environmental situation we are facing and is essential for define and predict possible future scenarios. With this premise it is necessary to raise awareness and disseminate a wider spread on the issue of climate change, since an important information gap has been identified outside the "academic walls" about these topics. An effective communication strategy addressed to younger and less younger generations, allow opening the debate on climate change. The questions that need to be answered are: the climate changes compared to what? What about the future scenarios? And the past can help us answering these questions. In this framework, the study of the climatic variability of the last millennia is essential to distinguish the anthropogenic from the natural climate forcing and to provide information for medium and long-term forecast models. These paleoclimatic reconstructions can be obtained through indirect data, called proxies, extrapolated from various natural fossil archives. This methodology allows us to document considerable climatic fluctuations that have played an important role in the last millennia in the social reorganizations in Europe, starting from the Roman period, when the anthropogenic forcing start to interact more consistently with the ecosystem. In addition, the study of sediments and fossil records allows us to extrapolate information on land use variations in different time records. Thus, the study of land use can be used to interpret the geomorphological variations of a territory and its propensity for hydro-geological instability. With this purpose, the Mediterranean Region represents a real natural laboratory for the national and international scientific community since it preserves evidence and information on multiple aspects of the geological history of the Earth system. Its strategic position between North African and the European climates, between the subtropical arid zones and the humid northern winds which makes it a marked scientific interest region. Last but not least, the Mare Nostrum is studded with studies and testimonies on its archaeological and cultural history that make it a perfect case to investigate the potential role of climate in civilizations and development of the territory.