Yi-Fu Tuan Geography Lecture Series

Did humans affect global climate before the Industrial Era? While debated, the co-evolution of humans and natural environment since the last Ice Age had an undisputed role in influencing terrestrial ecosystems. Yet we still have an incomplete picture of human-enviro interactions over the last 21K yrs. To address this, Kaplan has created a new synthesis of demographic, technological, and economic development over preindustrial time, and a database of historical urbanization over the last 8K yrs.