Scientists and policymakers from nearly 190 nations have converged in Bali this week for a two-week climate-change conference focused on cutting greenhouse gases. The conference, the start of a two-year negotiating process aimed at producing a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, focuses on the future, but the problem it tackles is centuries old. Take a crash course in environmental history at www.environmentalhistory.org, an interactive timeline that stretches from the B.C. era (the stripping of forests by ancient civilizations in Greece, Babylon and Italy) to the Industrial Revolution (smog-related deaths in big cities like London) to the future.
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