Climate History Network

<from “Perceptions du climat” and ICHM>

1. Séminaire “Perception du climat”, EHESS, 105 boulevard Raspail, Paris:

Jeudi 18 avril, 15h-17h, salle 1

Evénement météorologique et réseaux techniques :

le cas de la tempête du 14 novembre 1854

Fabien Locher, historien, EHESS

2. Two lectures of Christian Pfister, invited by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Collège de France, (salle 5), Paris:

Jeudi 16 mai, à 14h30
Record breaking hot and dry years – a comparison of 2003 and 1540 in Western and Central Europe

Mercredi 22 mai, à 14h30
Le Petit Age Glaciaire dans les Alpes et son impact sur les sociétés, 1300-1860

<From H-Env>

The History of Climate Change and the Future of Global Governance
Department of History, Columbia University
May 28 – August 16, 2013
New York, NY

The Hertog Global Strategy Initiative (HGSI) seeks talented undergraduates, graduate students, and mid-career professionals for its 2013 seminar on the History of Climate Change and the Future of Global Governance.

HGSI is a research program that explores how the world community has responded to planetary threats to derive lessons that will help us take on the challenges of the present and the future. Each summer, a select group of participants comes to Columbia University for three months to work with leading scholars and policymakers. This year’s initiative hopes to train a new generation of researchers and leaders who understand both the development of climate science and the changing nature of world politics.

The 2013 seminar will be taught by Matthew Connelly, Professor of History at Columbia University, and Jim Fleming, Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Colby College. They will be assisted in the classroom by Deborah Coen, Paul Edwards, Mike Hulme, Anthony Janetos, Bill McKibben, Geoffrey Parker, Gavin Schmidt, John Topping, and other leaders in the field.

Participants pursue original research both independently and in teams. Students will receive eight credit points for the seminar, the equivalent of two semester-long courses at Columbia.

For more information about the program or financial aid opportunities, visit: globalstrategy.columbia.edu.
You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Please direct any further questions to globalstrategy@columbia.edu or 212-854-9854.

Apply at globalstrategy.columbia.edu
Deadline: April 12, 2013 (Note: applicants will be admitted on a rolling basis)

The program and meeting details are now available for the upcoming International Congress of History of Science Technology and Medicine, to be held in Manchester 22-28 July 2013.  The International Commission on the History of Meteorology will host several panels there, including “Climates of Conquest?”, “Narratives on Climate and Water”, and “Working Atmospheres: Histories of Climate, Technology and Economics” (draft program here).

(From Alexander Hall:)

From the 7^th – 9^th January, 2013 a diverse group of scholars met in Oxford for a conference on aspects of the communication of weather and climate from the 18^th to the 21^st centuries. Organised and hosted by the Maison Française D’Oxford in partnership with the Museum of the History of Science Oxford, the conference began with a reception at the Museum of the History of Science where attendees were treated to a private viewing of the exhibition, “Atmospheres: Investigating the Weather from Aristotle to Ozone.”

The conference, the third and final in a series on scientific communication and its history, consisted of panels split along three themes; commodification of meteorological knowledge, media, and historicizing climate history. Each panel consisted of several short papers on the theme, delivered by a broad range of senior and early career academics from a variety of disciplines, followed by extensive question and discussion sessions. On the evening of the 8^th, a keynote lecture was given by Pascal Lecomte of the European Space Agency who spoke about how the agency collects, calibrates, and disseminates data to the general public.

The conference’s small, cordial, and interdisciplinary make-up meant that discussions went on long past the allocated slots and lively debate was had by all. The opportunity for historians, science communicators, and practicing scientists to discuss and debate at length their research and ideas on the communication of weather and climate was greatly appreciated. An edited volume representing papers from the three conferences on scientific communication is currently in development, and beyond this I am sure that many lasting connections, collaborations and projects will in time emerge as a result of this conference.

For more information on the conference, including a programme of the papers given please see http://www.mfo.ac.uk/en/events/climate-and-weather-science-public-culture

Attendees at the Climate and Weather: Science as Public Culture conference held in Oxford in early January

The next European Society for Environmental History Conference will take place August 20-24, 2013 at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and is hosted by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society.   The conference theme will be “Circulating Natures: Water-Food-Energy.”

This year, we have quite a few panels on climate and history, which should include:

-“The Climates of History and the Future of Humanity” with papers by Geoffrey Parker and Christian Pfister, chaired by John McNeill;

-Panels on documentary evidence for weather and climate reconstruction, with papers by Rudolf Brádzil, Stefan Vogt, Indrek Tarand, Christian Rohr, and others;

-”European Wars and the Environment during the Little Ice Age,” with papers by Dagomar Degroot, L. Rácz and E. Johann, chaired by Richard Hoffmann;

-“Extreme Drought Events: What they can tell us about the past and future” with papers by Christian Pfister and Glen MacDonald;

-“Hail storms, tropical cyclone, typhoons, ice cover, and their impacts,” with papers by Frank Oberholzner, David Nash, Michael Grossman, and Astrid Ogilvie chaired by Takehiko Mikami;

-“Water and Ice in the Low Countries: Causes, Consequences and Perception of Ice Blocking and River Flooding, 14th-20th centuries,” with papers by Adriaan de Kraker and others, chaired by Christian Rohr;

-“Volcanoes, Weather and Vulnerability: Impact of 18th-century Volcanic Eruptions on weather extremes, floods, and food shortages: European case studies,” with Andrea Kiss;

-“Past Human Impact of Climate Variability,” with Carey Mock, Kathleen Pribyl, and others;

-“Climate Crises, Famine and Migration,” with papers by Steven Engler, Takehiko Mikami, and Rudiger Glaser, chaired by Christian Pfister; and

-“The Climates of Colonial History,” with papers by Georgina Endfield, Franz Mauelshagen, and Sam White, chaired by Rudiger Glaser.

We also plan to make this conference the first official meeting of the new International Society for Historical Climatology and Climate History.  We’ll post more information soon.  (In the meantime, my apologies for any mistakes or missing names!)

Registration opens on February 15, and there should be a full conference program available soon.  For more information, please see: http://www.eseh2013.org/

The American Society for Environmental History is holding their conference in Toronto from April 3-6 this year, on the theme “Confluences, Crossings, and Power.”

Panels of interest to historical climatologists include:

-“East Meets West: Middle Eastern Environments and Western Eyes” (Panel 4-E), chaired by Sam White of Oberlin College. Paper presentations will be “East, West, and American Conversationism” by David Schorr of Tel Aviv University; “The Science of Sand: The East in Nineteenth Century European Climatology” by Philipp Lehmann of Harvard University; and “Getting the Goat: Disturbing Creatures and Attempts to Change the East” by Tamar Novick of Univeristy of Pennsylvania.

-“Desert Debates: Geology, Climate Change, and Environmental Engineering in the Nineteenth Century” (Panel 6-G), chaired by Kristine C. Halper of Florida State University. Paper presentations will be “Mapping the Desert Sublime “by Erik Altenbernd of UC Irvine, “Debating Climate Change in Nineteenth Century America” by Lawrence Culver of Utah State University and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, and “The Threat of the Desert: European Debates on Climate Change in the late Nineteenth Century” by Philipp Lehmann of Harvard University.

-“Early Modern Waterways, Economies and States Under Climatic Stress of the Maunder Minimum ca. 1670-1730” (Panel 9-J), chaired by Richard Hoffmann of York University. Paper presentations will be “Colonial Cataclysms: Hydrological Responses to Climate Change and Land Use in two Major Basins in Central Mexico, 1680-1780” by Bradley Skopyk of Universidad Autónoma de México, “Sandbars, Ice Floes and Rebels on Horseback: How the Changing Danube Shape Early Modern Warfare” by Verena Winiwarter of Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt-Graz-Wien, and “Water, Weather and Transportation in the Dutch Republic 1650-1750” by Dagomar Degroot of York University.

There will also be climate-related papers in other panels, including:

-”Science and Sustainability” (1-G), including Ronald Doel of Florida State University, “Climate Change as National Security Risk: How Cold War Concerns Influenced the Environmental Sciences”;

-“New Perspectives on American Agricultures” (Panel 6-H), chaired by Boyd Cothran of York University, with the paper “Landscapes of Time: Track Seasonal and Climatic Change in Agriculture, 1790-1860” by Emily Pawley of Dickinson University; and

-“Genealogies of Risk: Perspectives on the Construction of Environmental Risk in North America, Europe and Asia” (Panel 7-F) chaired by Sam Temple of the University of Oklahoma, with “Changes in the Air: Climatic Engineering and Environmental Risk in Nineteenth Century France and French Empire” by Sam Temple of the University of Oklahoma.

Sverker Sorlin and Liza Piper will also speak on Canada and the Arctic at the pre-conference workshop, Wednesday 1:45-2:45.

We will hold another climate history breakfast on the morning of Thursday, April 4.  This will also serve as the next meeting for the Climate History Network, to discuss new ideas and projects.

For more information, see the conference website at: http://aseh.net/conference-workshops/toronto-conference-2013  Registration is currently open online.  Don’t forget to sign up for our breakfast meeting!