The goals of this course are to discuss the geologic record of climate change and present an overview of the methods used to reconstruct the earth's climate history and the techniques used to determine the timing of environmental changes. Topics to be addressed will include paleoclimatic reconstruction, climate and climatic variation, dating methods, and climate proxies. In addition, periods of past climate change will be highlighted with particular emphasis on climate change during the recent past. This will be put into perspective with modern day and future global change.