Historical Perspectives on Climate Change - Hardcover

Fleming, James Rodger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195078705 ISBN 13: 9780195078701

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

This intriguing volume provides a thorough examination of the historical roots of global climate change as a field of inquiry, from the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century. Based on primary and archival sources, the book is filled with interesting perspectives on what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past. Chapters explore climate and culture in Enlightenment thought; climate debates in early America; the development of international networks of observation; the scientific transformation of climate discourse; and early contributions to understanding terrestrial temperature changes, infrared radiation, and the carbon dioxide theory of climate. But perhaps most important, this book shows what a study of the past has to offer the interdisciplinary investigation of current environmental problems.

About this title

Review

"Fleming presents...academic work, with a superb bibliography, and places the development of the science of the greenhouse effect in a context of the scientific concepts of the day." Nature, 21/10/99

Synopsis

This book provides historical perspectives on the climate apprehensions of scientists and the general public from the Englightenment to the late twentieth century. Issues discussed include what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past; how privileged and authoritative positions on climate have been established; the paths by which we have arrived at our current state of knowledge and apprehension; and what a study of the past has to offer to the interdisciplinary investigation of environmental problems. Chapters explore climate and culture in Englightenment thought; climate debates in early America; the development of international networks of observation; the scientific transformation of climate discourse; and early contributions to understanding terrestrial temperature changes, infrared radiation, and the carbon dioxide theory of climate. Although today's greatest climate debate concern is "global warming", the book points out that global cooling and global warming have been in the public spotlight atleast twice since the 1890s.

The epilogue argues for a view of global change and its human dimensions rendered more complete by a study of the intellectual, social, and cultural changes that preceded the current environmental crisis.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0195078705
• ISBN 13: 9780195078701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 212