Climate, cartography, and the life and death of the 'natural region' in British geography (original) (raw)
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Historiographies and Geographies of Climate
Weather, Climate and the Geographical Imagination: Placing Atmospheric Knowledges, 2020
In this brief Afterword to Mahony and Randalls' edited book ‘Weather, Climate and the Geographical Imagination’, I offer a perspective on the motivations behind this volume and reflect on the wider public value of the types of historically- and geographically-sensitive climate scholarship contained in the preceding pages. In particular, I make three observations. First, given how pervasive the idea of climate-change has become in the contemporary world, it is important to challenge simplistic and historically emaciated accounts of what we understand climate to be. Second, richer accounts as offered here of the multi-faceted idea of climate are emancipatory for contemporary politics. They challenge the dangerous hegemony of a naturalistic climate science—“every society needs a cohort of intellectuals to check the dominance of a single perspective when its ideological hand becomes too heavy” (Kagan, 2009: 266)—and open up new ways of framing climate-society relations. Third, these case studies illustrate the multiple ways in which the idea of climate is performative; how one comes to know climate, and the account one gives of its changes, is never politically neutral nor without effect on the social ordering of the world.
Whether (and how) physical and human geography should be integrated is a longstanding debate in our field. I return here to two entries in this debate from the early years of Progress in Physical Geography. While John Thornes’ 1981 progress report on atmospheric science reads like an early call for critical physical geography, the focus of this special issue, Ron Johnston’s 1983 article emphatically asserts that no such synthesis is intellectually or practically necessary. I argue, however, that Johnston’s article, perhaps inadvertently, lays the groundwork for integrated research.
A New Challenge for Climate Studies in Geography
The Professional Geographer, 1987
Greater emphasis is being placed on large-scale (synoptic and dynamic) climatology in geography. Concurrently, climatological research as a whole has evolved to view climate as a complex, integrated and interactive global system. in this contexf, we review new directions in large-scale climate studies in geography. We conclude that no matter at which climatic scale geographers are working, the new challenge is to integrate their research and teaching activities into a more holistic, global-systems approach while maintaining and improving their traditional strengths.
Geography in Britain after World War II: nature, culture and etchings in time
2019
Contemporary anxieties about climate change have fueled a growing interest in how landscapes are formed and transformed across spans of time, from decades to millennia. While the discipline of geography has had much to say about how such environmental transformations occur, few studies have focused on the lives of geographers themselves, their ideologies, and how they understand their field. This edited collection illuminates the social and biographical contexts of geographers in postwar Britain who were influenced by and studied under the pioneering geomorphologist, A. T. Grove. These contributors uncover the relationships and networks that shaped their research on diverse terrains from Africa to the Mediterranean, highlighting their shared concerns which have profound implications not only for the study of geography and geomorphology, but also for questions of environmental history, ecological conservation, and human security.
How is climate change used to define English regions?
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2011
This study examines how the science of climate change has helped to socially construct eight of the nine English standard regions (excluding London). This is placed within the context of regional actors whose primary concern is one of economic development rather than environmental issues. The study explores how regional authorities make this global issue relevant to their region. The images and historical legacy that are drawn upon to position the region in relation to climate change are discussed. Furthermore, the study considers how the proposed responses to climate change seek to further a regional identity.
Taking-place: non-representational theories in geography - Edited by Ben Anderson and Paul Harrison
New Zealand Geographer, 2011
First published in 1985 as the Fundamentals of Physical Geography, this classic textbook has developed a deserved reputation as an accessible, comprehensive and well-written introduction for undergraduate students in physical geography. During the last 25 years, physical geography has undergone significant changes with an increased emphasis on numerical modelling, computer and laboratory analysis, environmental history and proxy records. Textbooks, such as the Fundamentals of the Physical Environment, have evolved to address these trends. The book changed its name to correspond with a second and third edition in 1997 and 2002. In this fourth edition, published in 2008, all chapters have been revised, new chapters added, and, for the first time, the book is presented in full colour. Providing accessible and broad coverage of all aspects of physical geography, the book is well structured and divided into five logical 'parts': 'Fundamentals', 'Atmosphere', 'Geosphere', 'Biosphere' and 'Environments'. The authors retain a systems approach and appear keen to emphasise this perspective in their renaming of several chapters. For example, Chapter 14, 'Flowing water at the land surface', has been renamed 'Fluvial systems', and Chapter 16, 'The work of the wind', has become 'Aeolian systems'. Chapter 1, 'The physical environment: scientific concepts and methods', contains a new extended section on the paradigm shifts which have led to the development of physical geography as a modern academic discipline. 'Four giants of modern physical geography'-Chorley, Houghton, Hare and Prance-and their respective disciplinary contributions are identified. The chapter concludes by acknowledging that Earth System Science is likely to be the next enduring paradigm shift. A new chapter (23), 'Environmental reconstruction: principles and practice', examines the reconstruction of past environments using information preserved in the present. The principle of uniformity, summarised as 'the present is the key to the past,' provides a basis for discussion of different types of environmental signatures and of the documentary evidence that provides proxy records. The authors extend this principle, recognising the importance of past events in aiding future environmental management decisions. Somewhat unusually, previous editions of this book ended without a concluding chapter. In this edition, a new chapter (28), 'Current and future environmental change', provides the authors with an opportunity to discuss the complexities associated with climate change and the likely impacts of global warming. They allude to the important role that physical geographers can play in predicting, communicating, and managing environmental change. While these new additions add significantly to the value of this edition, they also reflect the rate of development within physical geography and in our scientific understanding of environmental change. To make space for these changes, the former Chapters 20, 21, 24 and 25 have been synthesised as Chapters 20, 'Principles of biogeography' and 24, 'Polar and alpine environments'. New, one page outlines, preceding each designated 'part' of the book, explain the content of each section and where they sit within the broader context of the subject. As in previous