Climate of the Past www.clim-past.net 1814-9324 1814-9332 2 2 2006 10.5194/cp-2-187-2006 http://www.clim-past.net/2/187/2006/ http://www.clim-past.net/2/187/2006/cp-2-187-2006.html http://www.clim-past.net/2/187/2006/cp-2-187-2006.pdf 187 203 2006-11-21 Climate-human-environment interactions: resolving our past J. A. Dearing j.dearing@liv.ac.uk Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, UK The paper reviews how we can learn from the past about climate-human-environment interactions at the present time, and in the future. It focuses on data sources for environmental change at local/regional and regional/global spatial scales, and shows the scope and limitations of each. It reviews alternative methods for learning from the past, including the increasing use of simulation models. The use of multiple records (observational, palaeoenvironmental, archaeological, documentary) in local case-studies is exemplified in a study from China, where independent records help unravel the complexity of interactions and provide a basis for assessing the resilience and sustainability of the landscape system. Holocene global records for Natural Forcings (e.g. climate and tectonics), Human Society and Ecosystems are reviewed, and the problems of reconstructing global records of processes that are only recorded at local scales examined. Existing regional/global records are used to speculate about the veracity of anthropogenic forcing of global climate, with specific consideration of the Ruddiman theory. 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