The book addresses aspects of Carbon exchange between the main Earth’s reservoirs (atmosphere, oceans, lithosphere, and biosphere) and how this dynamic has been acting at different timescales up to millions of years as a planetary climate stabilizer. Although humans are steadily introducing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, some fundamental understanding for why the planet will not go into a catastrophic runaway greenhouse scenario is provided. It is also discussed how our own emissions compare with some seminal perturbations in the C cycle in the geological past. The physical mechanism of the greenhouse effect and its consequences for rising temperatures, sea level rise, and polar ice melt, is also generally covered. The book ends with discussions on some of the technical and scientific solutions for mitigating and reducing emissions, as well as the challenges faced by a society that will have to live with an Earth system in a state far from its previous dynamic equilibrium.

Mário Gonçalves is Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and Energy at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and Vice-President of the research infrastructure C4G, Portugal’s representative in EPOS-ERIC. His research focuses on geochemistry and mineralogy, a good share of it devoted to mineral resources, but also to metal - mineral surface interactions and mineral stability, combining laboratory experiments with modelling approaches. Currently, his work addresses metal mobility in hydrothermal systems and CO₂ solubility in saline solutions. He was a member (WG and Steering Committee) of the European REE Competency Network (ERECON) of the European Commission (2013/15), and foreign visiting Professor in the University Complutense of Madrid program from 2009 to 2012. Since 2005, he has taught Geochemical Cycles at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Mário Gonçalves serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Natural Resources Research (Springer) and has co-edited a special issue of Ore Geology Reviews on targeting ore deposits undercover.