Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:35:51.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - Climate Theories

from Part I - Climate and Its Discontents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Michael Boyden
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

We are living in a time when the line between “climate” and “weather,” and our understanding of what these terms mean, is changing. This chapter shows that such significations were never stable, and our understanding of these terms has changed over time. In fact, our understanding of climate – as the expected weather in a region over a particular period of time – is a relatively recent one, emerging only about 150 years ago. This chapter argues that the evolution of our thinking about climate was catalyzed and assimilated by Europeans’ colonization of the Americas. These trans- and multinational efforts initiated and sustained scientific inquiry into what exactly climate is and how it functions on a planetary scale. In tracing climate theories from the early colonial period to the present, this chapter shows how earlier theories laid the groundwork for modern meteorology and climatology. And, ultimately, it argues that our current understanding of climate – including our coping with global and local climate changes – shares with earlier epistemologies an enmeshment of nature and culture that might productively point us toward creative and crucial solutions for our climate crises.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×