Abstract
This lecture will explore a simple question: Does the historical human experience of climate change since the last Ice Age matter to us now as we confront the very pressing problems raised by an unprecedented rate of change in a rapidly warming world? This question is simple enough but the answer is quite far from straightforward. And in fact I see no simple rule or model that can be gained by looking at historical climate change. Human history and human societies are complex, as is the Earth's climate system.
