Overland to India : The Debate on Climate Change of 1904-1914
Type
presentation
Date Issued
2013-01-09
Author(s)
Abstract
I am interested in the climate sciences at a time when simplicity was one of their
characteristics, when scholarly societies dominated professional networks, and when conceptual models and the logistics of data collecting and analysing obeyed the demands of mapping. One century ago, climate change as exposed by dissident geographers generated a passionate debate on the past and future of humankind. The historiography of climate change has until now granted scant attention to that debate and, more generally, to colonial geography's practices of assessing data from the marches of the Empire. The Kevir, Taklamakan and Gobi deserts were nevertheless meticulously surveyed, and their climate extremes painfully recorded by parties of geographers, orientalists and archaeologists armed with the best instruments of the day. Journalists and the public fêted their achievements when these explorers came back to London, Paris, and Berlin with long columns of figures, measurements and bearings. My paper will address the controversy raised by the gap between the rather reliable reconstruction of the environmental history of the ancient civilizations of Inner Asia and uncertainties on what this reconstruction meant for the contemporary scientific ethos and the early 20th century world-order.
characteristics, when scholarly societies dominated professional networks, and when conceptual models and the logistics of data collecting and analysing obeyed the demands of mapping. One century ago, climate change as exposed by dissident geographers generated a passionate debate on the past and future of humankind. The historiography of climate change has until now granted scant attention to that debate and, more generally, to colonial geography's practices of assessing data from the marches of the Empire. The Kevir, Taklamakan and Gobi deserts were nevertheless meticulously surveyed, and their climate extremes painfully recorded by parties of geographers, orientalists and archaeologists armed with the best instruments of the day. Journalists and the public fêted their achievements when these explorers came back to London, Paris, and Berlin with long columns of figures, measurements and bearings. My paper will address the controversy raised by the gap between the rather reliable reconstruction of the environmental history of the ancient civilizations of Inner Asia and uncertainties on what this reconstruction meant for the contemporary scientific ethos and the early 20th century world-order.
Language
English
Keywords
History of science
history of geography
history of climate
Chinese Central Asia
travel and exploration
colonial science
environmental history
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
Climate and Weather: Science as Public Culture conference
Event Location
Maison Française d'Oxford
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
216894