Author: ichmeteo

ICHM and CHSTM Workshop

Manchester 21 – 22 November

Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Organizers: Vladimir Jankovic (Manchester) and Samuel Randalls (UCL)

There has been relatively little historical and critical research on applied and commercial meteorology compared to that on academic research and weather forecasting. Through the twentieth century, however, commercial meteorology and industrial climatology became increasingly prominent, often attributed to a post-WW2 glut of available meteorologists and an emerging number of corporations exploring, for example, air pollution, emergencies and business interruption issues. Governments around the world have supported the development of an explicitly commercial meteorological sector to provide competition to public services in areas of weather forecasting and consultancy, although public organizations are still generally charged with collecting meteorological data and producing emergency forecasts.

(Cross post from H-Environment, via the Climate History Network)

On the 17th October 2013, the Centre for Social and Political Thought and the Centre for World Environmental History at Sussex University will be hosting a joint one-day workshop on how the humanities and social sciences have engaged with issues around climate change. Within the last two decades, discussions around climate change have expanded from the natural sciences to include the social sciences and humanities. It is now clear that climate change has political, economic and social consequences. However, until now academic discussions on the topic have focused primarily on policy implementation and the consequences of such actions. Furthermore, the historical dimensions to the debate have been severely neglected. Therefore, with this in mind, the aim of the one-day workshop will be to explore different approaches to the understanding of the climate change phenomenon with a view to further enhancing the inter-disciplinary approach to the subject. Thus, this workshop will provide an opportunity for, among others, social theorists, environmental activists, environmental historians and intellectual historians to come together to exchange ideas about how to understand the ‘climate change phenomenon’.

For further information please e-mail Alex Elliot (aje28@sussex.ac.uk) or James Cullis (J.Cullis@sussex.ac.uk)

(Cross post from the Climate History Network)

IPO Building, Room 0.11, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

31st Oct – 1st Nov 2013.

ABSTRACT:

Climate models influence our understanding of climate change, its causes and its future. They are a central technology of climate science. But they are also sources of information for far-reaching policy decisions, sites of multidisciplinary integration, products of distributed epistemic labor and much more. As a consequence, climate models are of significant interest to scholars in philosophy, history of science, and science and technology studies. This workshop will bring together well-regarded scholars in these fields along with established climate scientists to explore the epistemic, ethical and socio-political roles that climate models play, their interactions and implications.

On June 6-7, 2013, Georgetown University’s Mortara Center for International Studies hosted the workshop “Colonialism and Climate History,” organized by John McNeill, Franz Mauelshagen, Eleonora Rohland, and Jean-François Mouhot.  The presenters, both historians and geographers, explored perceptions, reconstructions, impacts, and adaptations to climate, climate change, and extreme weather in the colonial context.  Coverage ranged from the early modern period to the Cold War; and while most presentations focused on the Americas, two papers also examined case studies in East Africa and Indochina.

Click here to download a full list of presenters and topics.