The PEOPLE 3000 working group combines archaeological and paleoecological case studies with mathematical modeling to investigate how co-evolving human societies and ecosystems can successfully cope with the interrelated forces of population growth, increasing social complexity and climate change, and, sometimes, why societies fail to cope with these interrelated forces and reorganize.

PEOPLE 3000's research contributes to understanding why some coupled social-ecological systems display gradual change, while others experience tipping points and rapid change leading to growth or decline and even collapse.

By integrating archaeological data, paleoecological data and dynamic modeling, PEOPLE 3000 aims to explain long-term patterns of growth in the consumption of energy in social-ecological systems and the tipping points of these systems within the contexts of changing climates and environments over the last 3000 years.