THE SPIRAL OF CLIMATE. Civilizations of the Mediterranean and Climate Change in History

Abstract

The climate has always been subject to changes, and these have often caused trouble and posed unexpected threats. People have had to adapt by finding socially, culturally and economically adequate answers. Based on authoritative scientific and historical studies, this book explores the civilizations that have called the Mediterranean their home during the last 3,000 years, and makes their history accessible to a wide readership. Aided by a group of researchers, the authors aim not only to delineate climatic trends and their social repercussions through the centuries, but also to address the ideas and theories set forth by thinkers since time immemorial. This book gives voice to ancient Greek and Latin philosophers, medieval encyclopedists (Christian and Arab), intellectuals of the modern era and the Enlightenment, and exponents of nineteenth-century positivism. Ancient and recent Mediterranean civilizations alike concerned themselves with weather forecasts, the climate and health, and the relationship between climate and the environment: they have elaborated on these issues and come up with answers since antiquity. Casting light on largely unexplored aspects of history, this journey through time works its way to the present global warming. The new challenge that lies before us is best assessed in a perspective of “historical climate change,” to which the doings of humankind are adding great momentum.