In order to predict how present changes in climate will affect Canada's environment, it is essential to understand the environmental impacts of past climate changes. In this activity, paleogeographic data from the last 18,000 years are assembled, synthesized, published, and web-enabled to help guide climate change adaptation strategies. Understanding the natural variability of the climate-environment system is essential for assessing present changes in climate associated with human activities. Of particular interest are the changes in climate over the last 18,000 years, from the Last Glacial Maximum (the period during the last ice age when the ice was at maximum extent) to the present. This activity displays some of the environmental consequences of past climate change that have occurred in North America since the Last Glacial Maximum.