Climate, Science, and Colonization

Beattie, James; O’Gorman, Emily; Henry, Matthew

doi:10.1057/9781137333933

Cited by 12 publications

References 6 publications

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Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945

O’Gorman¹,

Beattie

Henry

2016

WIREs Climate Change

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This review article focuses on scholarship that lies at the intersection of histories of climate and British settler colonization in Australia and New Zealand. It first discusses the role of climate in their colonial histories and then developments in the field of climate history, examining similarities and differences within and between Australia and New Zealand. Next, it outlines two significant recent themes in climate history in both places: contested climate debates and perceptions, and social impacts and responses to climate. The article finishes by recommending future areas for research. Throughout, we stress the importance of local‐level approaches to climate as a means of understanding past and present, popular and scientific, interpretations of climate. We also emphasize the role that imperatives of colonization have played in shaping particular kinds of climate knowledge, including in overwriting nonelite views of climate. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:893–909. doi: 10.1002/wcc.426 This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > World Historical Perspectives

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Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945

O’Gorman¹,

Beattie

Henry

2016

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate and colonialism

Mahony¹,

Endfield

2018

WIREs Climate Change

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Recent years have seen a growth in scholarship on the intertwined histories of climate, science, and European imperialism. Scholarship has focused both on how the material realities of climate shaped colonial enterprises, and on how ideas about climate informed imperial ideologies. Historians have shown how European expansion was justified by its protagonists with theories of racial superiority, which were often closely tied to ideas of climatic determinism. Meanwhile, the colonial spaces established by European powers offered novel “laboratories” where ideas about acclimatization and climatic improvement could be tested on the ground. While historical scholarship has focused on how powerful ideas of climate informed imperial projects, emerging scholarship in environmental history, history of science, and historical geography focuses instead on the material and cognitive practices by which the climates of colonial spaces were made known and dealt with in fields such as forestry, agriculture, and human health. These heretofore rather disparate areas of historical research carry great contemporary relevance for studies of how climates and their changes have been understood, debated, and adapted to in the past. This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Major Historical Eras

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A historical perspective on Australian temperature extremes

2020

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Global temperature increases are most clearly detected in the shifting distribution of extreme events. Australia's warming climate has resulted in significant changes in the frequency of temperature extremes, with a general increase in heatwaves and a reduction in the number of cold days. Here, we present the longest historical analysis of daily Australian temperature extremes and their societal impacts compiled to date. We use a newly consolidated early instrumental dataset and a range of historical sources for the South Australia region of Adelaide-the nation's driest state, containing the most heatwave-affected city in Australia-to investigate any changes in the characteristics of daily temperature extremes back to 1838. We identify multidecadal variability in heatwave and snow event frequency with a peak in the early 20th century, with an overall decrease in cold extremes and an increase in heatwaves in the region over the 1838-2019 period. Documentary and instrumental records show a decrease in the number of snow events in Adelaide, and a clear increase in the number of heatwaves since the late 20th century. To gain dynamical insight into historical extremes in South Australia, detailed case studies are presented to compare the synoptic characteristics of historical hot and cold extremes and their impacts. We place a particular emphasis on lesser-known events of the pre-1910 period and rare low-elevation snowfall. Significantly, this is the first study to provide long-term evidence for a reduction of low-elevation snow events and cold outbreaks in Australia. Finally, a discussion of the value and limitations of using historical instrumental and documentary data to assess long-term changes in Australian temperature extremes and their potential to improve future climate change risk assessment is provided.

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Climate, Science, and Colonization

Cited by 12 publications

References 6 publications

Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945

Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945

Climate and colonialism

A historical perspective on Australian temperature extremes

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