Klimawandel in der Geschichte Europas

Zur Entwicklung und zum Potenzial der Historischen Klimatologie

Abstract

Historical Climatology draws from climatology and (environmental) history. lt aims at reconstructing climate and natural disasters for the period preceding the creation of meteorological networks. Moreover it investigates the impact of climate extremes on societies and it points out to past debates on social representations of climate. Up to 1989 no coherent methodology was available. Since then cooperation emerged in the framework of EU research projects. As a result common approaches and standards were developed. The article discusses the evidence and explains how long time series of monthly and seasonal temperature and precipitation indices were obtained from the data. Validation has revealed that such series are good substitutes for instrumental measurements. Recently climatologists have included this data into statistical models to construct charts of monthly surface pressure, temperature and precipitation in Europe back to 1659. Less efforts were made to investigate the effects of climatic variations and extremes on societies. lt is still not known how past societies perceived climatic extremes and natural disasters and how they adapted to them. Undoubtedly climate affected the use and availability of energy resources (food, fodder, fire-wood) and the outbreak of climate sensitive epidemics. Which climatic constellations mattered, needs to be assessed within the specific context. In any case the vulnerability of the society needs to be taken into account. The mental, legal and political setting affected the search for scapegoats in periods of crises. lt is demonstrated that extended witch-hunts took place in the late sixteenth century because a part of society held the witches directly responsible for the high frequency of climatic anomalies during this period.