THE TIMES ARE ALWAYS CHANGING - THE HOLOCENE SAGA

The popular notion that the natural world maintains an invariant balan ce without perturbation by industrial civilization is invalid. Environ mental changes in the aftermath of Pleistocene glaciation were dramati c and pervasive, and continued in varying guise throughout the Holocen e interglacial, which has been coincident in duration with the rise of modern human cultures. Holocene conditions have been influenced by th e progress of physical processes and biotic migrations set in motion b y deglaciation, by climatic fluctuations still poorly understood, and by the behavior of aboriginal peoples who achieved widespread manipula tion of their evolving environments even as they learned to adapt to t hem. Because cumulative Holocene environmental changes are largely irr eversible, future sustainability of the human condition is dependent u pon further and wiser development of human culture. All hopes for retu rn to an irretrievable past are quixotic.