The climate of the Earth has never been constant and there is a vast record of the patterns and process of change in the rocks around us: a record that shows that computer models used for predicting the future are likely to underestimate what is both possible and likely. Humans are altering the Earth System in a way that has never been seen before but, also for the first time in the history of the Earth, we have the capacity for intelligent planetary management.

Filmed at an Open University/Barbican study day entitled ‘Radical Nature, Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009’, join Professor Bob Spicer from the Open University’s Earth Science Department, as he puts climate change in context.