Chapter 2 - Climate Theories

Summary

We are living in a time when the line between “climate” and “weather,” and our understanding of what these terms mean, is changing. This chapter shows that such significations were never stable, and our understanding of these terms has changed over time. In fact, our understanding of climate – as the expected weather in a region over a particular period of time – is a relatively recent one, emerging only about 150 years ago. This chapter argues that the evolution of our thinking about climate was catalyzed and assimilated by Europeans’ colonization of the Americas. These trans- and multinational efforts initiated and sustained scientific inquiry into what exactly climate is and how it functions on a planetary scale. In tracing climate theories from the early colonial period to the present, this chapter shows how earlier theories laid the groundwork for modern meteorology and climatology. And, ultimately, it argues that our current understanding of climate – including our coping with global and local climate changes – shares with earlier epistemologies an enmeshment of nature and culture that might productively point us toward creative and crucial solutions for our climate crises.