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Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945
Author(s) -
O'Gorman Emily,
Beattie James,
Henry Matthew
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: climate change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.678
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1757-7799
pISSN - 1757-7780
DOI - 10.1002/wcc.426
Subject(s) - climate change , colonialism , scholarship , environmental history , geography , climate science , colonization , history , political science , ecology , archaeology , law , economic history , biology
This review article focuses on scholarship that lies at the intersection of histories of climate and British settler colonization in Australia and New Zealand. It first discusses the role of climate in their colonial histories and then developments in the field of climate history, examining similarities and differences within and between Australia and New Zealand. Next, it outlines two significant recent themes in climate history in both places: contested climate debates and perceptions, and social impacts and responses to climate. The article finishes by recommending future areas for research. Throughout, we stress the importance of local‐level approaches to climate as a means of understanding past and present, popular and scientific, interpretations of climate. We also emphasize the role that imperatives of colonization have played in shaping particular kinds of climate knowledge, including in overwriting nonelite views of climate. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:893–909. doi: 10.1002/wcc.426 This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > World Historical Perspectives