Historical Perspectives on Climate Change

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.