The climate on Earth has changed very frequently in the past, and the analysis of the past climate and of its changes is essential in order to understand what is happening today because of human activities, and what are the risks for tomorrow. The human civilization had the chance to develop thanks to several factor, but one of the most important ones was that about ten thousand years of climate stability after the last glaciation allowed the development of agriculture and the consequent establishment of human settlements. The huge increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration of the last 70 years makes us to search similar conditions in the past, and it may not be what we would like to see.
Andrea Tilche, UiT The Arctic University of Norway – Past climate