RESPONSES TO CLIMATE AND WEATHER CONDITIONS THROUGHOUT HISTORY
RESPONSES TO CLIMATE AND WEATHER CONDITIONS THROUGHOUT HISTORY
For people and all living beings in all ages, meteorological factors have conditioned their biological success, social organization, land use, and standards of well-being. For humankind, these factors have also influenced his vision of the territory and the relationship with the divine.
Aiming to go beyond concerns with recent and forthcoming changes in climate conditions which have dominate research in environmental studies, but without excluding them, this conference adopts a long term perspective on living beings adjustment to nature. Although framed by Environmental History the conference also assumes an holistic vision, establishing a dialogue with other fields of knowledge not only within the Humanities, but also the natural sciences, as Ecology and Biogeography.
Within this interdisciplinary approach, participants will reflect upon responses to weather and climate, as well as upon their consequences over ecological, economic, social and cultural contexts.
The program is organized around four topics:
- Erosion and population: how society deals with erosion effects and responses to changed landscapes;
- Imagined landscapes: how literary weather descriptions influence perceptions of the territory and, at the same time, how those perceptions are influenced by feelings, experiences and values;
- Space and climate: how species distribution and life history evolved in relation to climate changing conditions;
- Human responses to weather - building and praying: how humans react upon natural hazards by building material shelters and calling for divine protection.
A 40 minutes video installation about environmental humanities, with James Fleming, Ursula Heise, Greg Garrard, Sarah Elkind, David Nye, Donald Worster e Hannes Bergthaller.
