Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climates: Some Persistent Problems

A series of lectures as comprehensive as those reported in this issue leaves very little for a general reviewer to say. The lecturers have included many of the leading specialists in each of the subfields of palaeoclimatology, upon whose work a reviewer must lean. Moreover there has recently been published a fine synthesis of what is known about the overall character of Quaternary and Holocene climates (U.S. GARP Committee, 1974) (hereafter referred to as GARP-74). All I can do in this situation is to point out some disturbing and persistent problems that tend to defy solution.