A Millennium of Climate Change in Europe: From Medieval Warming to Today's Climate Crisis

12/11/21 • 39 min

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In the 22nd episode of Climate History, co-hosts Emma Moesswilde and Dagomar Degroot interview Christian Pfister, co-author (with Heinz Wanner) of a new book: "Climate and Society in Europe: The Last Thousand Years." Pfister is one of the founders of the related fields of climate history and historical climatology. He explains how he helped establish these fields, how they benefit from genuine collaboration between disciplines, and what they may be revealing about today's climate crisis. He also describes the most important themes in the last millennium of climate change in Europe - and why it is so important that scholars introduce their methods, models, and sources to a broad audience.

Previous Episode

Climate Histories and Futures in the Indian Ocean World

In the 21st episode of Climate History, co-host Emma Moesswilde interviews Debjani Bhattacharyya, Associate Professor of History at Drexel University. Professor Bhattacharyya is among the most innovative scholars of past climate change, and the histories she uncovers have clear relevance for the future of the Indian Ocean World. Moesswilde and Bhattacharyya discuss the history of human responses to climate change at sea; the role of environmental disasters in shape urban trajectories; the role of insurance markets in creating weather knowledge; and how transdisciplinary perspectives on the past can inform our understanding of a hotter future.

Next Episode

Introducing The Climate Chronicles: A New Podcast on the History of Climate Change

The final episode of the Climate History podcast is also the first episode of The Climate Chronicles, a new podcast created, produced, and narrated by our host, Professor Dagomar Degroot of Georgetown University. The Climate Chronicles is a unique multimedia production that uses dramatic storytelling to explain how climate change shaped the history of humanity, from our evolution to the current climate crisis. It explores how and why climate changed in the past; how researchers in many fields identify human responses to past climate changes; how scientists first learned about the history of climate change; and what this history could tell us about the future. In our introductory episode, Professor Degroot uses one of the great adventure stories of the seventeenth century - the tale of fourteen desperate men deserted on two tiny Arctic islands - to identify key themes in the history of climate change. You can find The Climate Chronicles wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can visit TheClimateChronicles.com to view episode trailers, download audio files, and read illustrated transcripts with maps, graphs, infographics, and citations.