Created and narrated by Professor Dagomar Degroot of Georgetown University, The Climate Chronicles reveals how climate change has shaped humanity’s past—and what history can tell us about the future of global warming. With clear, dramatic storytelling, each episode brings history to life through gripping narratives and cutting-edge science.

In the fifth and final episode of our second season, Escaping the Pleistocene, Professor Degroot reveals how an extraordinary rise in sea levels, about 10,000 years ago, overwhelmed ecosystems and human populations from Europe to Australia. He evaluates whether ancient myths and legends, including the story of Atlantis, preserve traumatic memories of early Holocene flooding. And he provides some broad reflections on the 100,000 years of human and climate history covered in this season. Season two of The Climate Chronicles is an immersive journey through the extreme climate shifts that influenced some of the most important events in the history of our species, from a wave of extinctions that transformed ecosystems around the world to the emergence of agriculture. The season also explores the history of the sciences that have revealed how climate change shaped our deep past.

For an episode trailer and a transcript complete with citations, as well as maps, graphs, infographics, and other images, visit TheClimateChronicles.com.