Question: Bit of a random question now..... You know humans causing climate change is called 'Anthropogenic'...is that word latin or something? Does it have another meaning?

James Verdon answered on 4 Jul 2012:

Hi mimi,
Anthropogenic can be split into two parts – anthropo, and genic. The first part, anthropo, comes from ancient Greek, and it means ‘relating to men’. Genic also has it’s origins in Greek, from the Greek word genos, meaning born or birth, or created.

So anthropogenic literally means ‘created by men’, and its origins are from Greek. So anthropogenic climate change is climate change created by mankind. We use this term to distinguish our current situation, where our CO2 emissions are driving temperature changes, from natural cycles of climate change.