全球变化科学对揭示和理解人类赖以生存的地球系统运转的机制、变化规律及人类活动对地球表层环境系统的影响具有重要的意义。从深海氧同位素曲线的建立与米兰科维奇理论的发展、高分辨率冰芯记录的研究、短周期气候变化、突变事件的发现、南北半球古气候对比的研究以及我国学者对过去全球变化研究的贡献等角度论述了地球环境变化历史的研究进展；并在对温室效应和全球气候变暖、臭氧洞、土地利用和土地覆盖的变化以及水资源等研究和现代观测资料分析的基础上，阐述了人类活动对地球环境的影响；提出了当前全球变化科学研究的发展趋势以及在新世纪全球变化科学所面临的挑战。

Global Change Science plays a significant role in studying and understanding the mechanism and evolution of Earth system that human being live on, and the human activities effect on the surface Earth environment system. In this paper, we presented the studying progress in evolution history of Earth environment from different fields, firstly. Such as establishment of the curve of deep-sea oxygen isotope, development of Milankovitch astronomical orbit theory, studies on the high resolvability records of ice core, change of the short periodical climate and find of the accidental climate, comparison of the climate changes between north and south hemisphere and the contribution to the past global changes by Chinese scientists. And then we analyzed the affect of the human activities on the Earth environmental system by studying and observing the modern meteorological material, such as the greenhouse effect and global warming, hole of ozonosphere, changes of land use and land cover, water resources. At last, we discussed the main trend and challenges of Global Change Science in the new century.