Historical Perspectives on Climate Change

Download or read book Historical Perspectives on Climate Change written by James Rodger Fleming and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-14 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.