Sven Hedin and the invention of climate change
Journal
Oestbulletinen
ISSN
1654-8698
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2008-11
Author(s)
Abstract
In a bestseller that in 2003 entered the mainstream literature on global warming, Spencer Weart, a professor of physics history at Harvard, delivered a definitive account of the history of climate studies. Reviews of his popular book, The Discovery of Global Warming, have however been mixed. Reviewers, especially if they were Europeans and meteorologists, noted that Professor Spencer Weart often forgot to credit non-American scientists. As far as I am concerned, his book overlooked the significance of several areas: the contributions of field cartographers, of maps as tools for interdisciplinary communication, of the collecting of evidence of climate change either in geological ages or historical times, and of the topographical survey campaigns that, to allow for meaningful comparisons, were led at a sub-continental scale in the US Southwest, the Sahara, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Geographers had indeed begun probing new theories on climate change at the turn of the 20th century.
Language
English
Keywords
Climate change
history of climate
geography of Central Asia
environmental history
history of science
"Pulse of Asia"
Sino-Swedish Expedition (1927-1935)
Ellsworth Huntington
Sven Hedin
Aurel Stein
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Sällskapet för studier av Ryssland, Central-och Östeuropa samt Centralasien
Publisher place
Stockholm
Volume
12
Number
8
Start page
29
End page
33
Pages
5
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
215054