The First Ohioans and Climate Change

Ohio Humanities is a nonprofit organization that shares stories to spark conversations and inspire ideas. We host programs and award grants that support storytellers statewide, from museums to journalists to documentary filmmakers.

Ohio Humanities

Join archaeologist Brad Lepper for a discussion of how humans became active agents in a changing climate.

<p>Humans first entered the Ohio Valley sometime after 20,000 years ago. These hardy American Indian pioneers adapted to the New World they found and, over the succeeding millennia, shaped many aspects of their environment. Through forest clearing along with selective weeding and planting they favored some species of plants and animals and possibly drove others to extinction. Europeans arrived in the 18th and 19th centuries and rapidly accelerated those processes of environmental change. With the Industrial Revolution and the intensive burning of fossil fuels, including Ohio’s rich coal deposits, humans began to be active agents in changing the very climate of the Earth in ways that could prove to be disastrous for many species, including our own. Can humans and the civilizations we have created find ways to adapt to these profound changes or possibly even undo the damage we have caused?</p><p>This event is part of "Landscapes, Rivers, and Lakes: Ohio’s Natural Environment and a Changing Climate," a series of three Ohio Humanities Speakers Bureau events examining the connections between the public humanities and the environment.</p>

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