My understanding is that we are currently living in an interglacial period.

I believe the pattern on Earth recently has been you get these relatively mild climates that last around 10 thousand years, in between 100 thousand years of ice age.

So, maybe the climate was harsh pretty much everywhere that wasn’t the equator for most of time our species has existed.

1. Not exactly utopian, but the Murderbot Diaries are a great and easy read. Not exactly SciFi, but ditto Terry Pratchett’s disc world books.

2. I personally found this to be very impactful (in a good way): “How to Listen: Tools for Opening Up Conversations When It Matters Most” by Katie Colombus