Presented at the Society of Ethnobiology Conference, Lake Tahoe May 22, 2025. 

Abstract: As current weather patterns become more extreme, climate watchers are confident our plight will only get worse. Some now speculate about our extinction. Half a century ago, anthropologist Elizabeth Colsen argued that while food scarcity has occurred many times in history, severe climate change could lead to dramatic increases in plagues, famines, civil unrest, revolts, reprisals, invasions, and “a loss of confidence in both the social and natural order." Through her ethnographic research and literature review, she identified “hard times” stories and coping strategies which were shared generationally. Based on my careful study of the current climate science, I hypothesize that some of our species will survive the coming collapse. I dig into our archaeological past for evidence of persistent adaptations that have withstood the test of time. I conclude with speculations about what our future might look like, based on a historical ecology of the past.