Climate Change (old guide)
Provides resources on climate change and global warming from the perspective of the disciplines of science, social science and humanities.
History and climate change
Image from The History of Climate Change on the Skeptical Science website
What does the discipline of history contribute to our understanding of climate change?
- an understanding of anthropogenic changes to the environment that have taken place over millennia.
- perspectives on the relationship between climatic conditions and human societies.
- skills for documenting events as a major world-changing development is underway
Web resources
- The Scientist as Antiquarian: History, Climate, and the New PastFrom IAS - Institute for Advanced Studies, Historical Studies, 2019.
- Historians to climate researchers: Let’s talkHighlights two historians from Princeton University who, with a colleague from Georgetown, co-authored a paper that looked at four case studies to examine some of the ways societies have and have not coped with natural stresses.
- American Society for Environmental History"The American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) advances understanding of human interactions with the natural world by promoting historical research and teaching, and fostering dialogue about human use of the earth among humanists, social and environmental scientists, and the public."
- Historical ClimatologyFounded in 2010, and originally started as a blog, Historical Climatology "shares interdisciplinary climate change research with scholars, journalists, students, policymakers, and the general public," and explores "how cutting-edge scholarship about past climate change can shed new light on issues relevant to present and future warming." The focus is on climate change scholarship in disciplines other than the sciences, including history, economics, political science, and law.
Books and ebooks
The Great Warming : climate change and the rise and fall of civilizations by Call Number: Sylvania Main Collection 904.5 F34g 2008Publication Date: 2008-03-04
The Discovery of Global Warming by Call Number: Rock Creek Main Collection 551.6 W43d 2003Publication Date: 2003-09-30
Climate Change in Human History: prehistory to the present by Call Number: Sylvania Main Collection 304.25 L54c 2018Publication Date: 2018-01-25
The Human Footprint: A Global Environmental History by Call Number: ebookPublication Date: 2014-10-15
DVDs and streaming videos
This episode of The Green Interview features John Cumbler, an author and environmental historian whose studies explore the human impact on the natural world over long periods of time.
"How Climate Made History" (52 minutes)
"Earth in 1000 Years" - An eye opening documentary on what the future may look like. (47 minutes)