Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Humans evolved in the natural world with little to no control over our environment.
Over time, humans began to find ways to adapt to varying climates by making clothing and shelter, and, eventually, by controlling fire. This ultimately led to central heating and air conditioning, but at great cost.
In this SciCafe, join Kevin Uno, associate professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, for a discussion on the ways in which humanity’s need to control its own environment has led to dire impacts on global climate and where do we go from here.
Dr. Kevin Uno is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is a paleoecologist whose primary research focuses on the role of climate and environmental change on mammalian and human evolution. He has led or co-authored a series of papers that linked dietary changes in mammals and hominins to late Neogene vegetation change. Since 2013, he has focused on the development and application of molecular biomarker analyses on terrestrial and marine sediments to reconstruct ecosystem structure, hydroclimate, and fire in ancient environments.
This SciCafe lecture was presented in partnership by the American Museum of Natural History and The Leakey Foundation.
Sponsored by:
The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation
Camilla and George Smith
The Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund
Humans evolved in the natural world with little to no control over our environment.
Over time, humans began to find ways to adapt to varying climates by making clothing and shelter, and, eventually, by controlling fire. This ultimately led to central heating and air conditioning, but at great cost.
In this SciCafe, join Kevin Uno, associate professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, for a discussion on the ways in which humanity’s need to control its own environment has led to dire impacts on global climate and where do we go from here.
Dr. Kevin Uno is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is a paleoecologist whose primary research focuses on the role of climate and environmental change on mammalian and human evolution. He has led or co-authored a series of papers that linked dietary changes in mammals and hominins to late Neogene vegetation change. Since 2013, he has focused on the development and application of molecular biomarker analyses on terrestrial and marine sediments to reconstruct ecosystem structure, hydroclimate, and fire in ancient environments.
This SciCafe lecture was presented in partnership by the American Museum of Natural History and The Leakey Foundation.
Sponsored by:
The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation
Camilla and George Smith
The Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund
