Geological records of the recent past, a key to the near future world environments

The present paper reproduces with some minor modifications the text of the explanatory notes that accompany a set of two maps co-published in 1999 hy the Commission for the Geological Map of the World and ANDRA entitled: Maps of the World Environment during the last two Climatic Extremes (I. The Las t Glacial Maximum - ca 18,000 +/- 2,000 yrs B.P., 2. The Holocene Optimum - ca 8,000 +/- 1,000 yrs B.P.). A reduced version of these two maps, origina lly printed at the scale of 1:25,000,000, each one in two sheers, is presen ted here. They propose a reconstruction of the paleoenvironments of the wor ld at two important moments of the recent past climatic evolution and provi de useful geological data for refining climatic models and examining, from different angles, the evolution concerning the regions and sites under stud y.