This module investigates the nature and causes of the major climatic fluctuations of the last 2.5 million years at global to local scales and from million year to decadal timescales. The module explores the varied records of past environmental change, the evidence used to reconstruct and understand past environments and the response of the terrestrial, ocean and ice sheet systems and biota – including humans – to climate change. It integrates perspectives from different disciplines such as sedimentology, palaeontology, oceanography and archaeology.