Engaging the Past for a Warming World

Summary

Increasing the public benefits of archaeology involves more than increasing our assertions of relevance. Relevance is a vague term that is easy to assert because it is difficult to disprove. Likewise, archaeology is not a predictive science and promoting "lessons from the past" creates unrealistic expectations of archaeologists and our work. If we are to connect the past to efforts to address climate change, we need to provide specific, archaeologically-informed examples that demonstrate how the past can inform human actions to address climate change. This presentation will offer specific examples of how a long-term perspective and some knowledge of the past can (should?) influence public actions and policy decision-making. It is hoped that these examples will be shared and stimulate similar efforts that demonstrate, but do not assert, the need to engage the past for a warming world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20796