The climatically sensitive equatorial regions provide important information for evaluation of the phasing between high- and low-latitude climate variability. A high-resolution pollen record from northern Brazil demonstrates a significant abrupt and rapid environmental change associated with the Northern Hemisphere Younger Dryas temperature reversal. This finding is consistent with the model in which the Younger Dryas had a stronger influence on temperature in the Northern Hemisphere than south of the equator because of the larger temperature gradient between pole and equator in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. One consequence of the Younger Dryas changes would be the location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in a southern position, so that even tropical regions would have been under Arctic influence.