Climate change may seem like something totally new. And indeed human-caused global warming has only heated the planet for about a century. It’s become a serious threat to humanity only in the last decade.
But climate change, defined as a long-term shift in weather, has always affected humanity. Natural climate changes were different from today’s global warming, but they did have an influence on history. The Climate Chronicles describes that influence, and explores what it can tell us about today’s climate crisis.
In 42 episodes spread across eight seasons, The Climate Chronicles draws on the latest scholarship in such fields as archaeology, history, climatology, and geology to present a comprehensive picture of how climate change has influenced humanity. It explains complicated concepts in plain language, in a vivid, narrative style. Every episode is a stand-alone story, and every season its own distinct chapter in climate’s history.
Written, produced, and narrated by Professor Dagomar Degroot, one of the world’s leading historians of climate change, and financially supported by Georgetown University’s Earth Commons, The Climate Chronicles is a one-of-a-kind resource. It’s a podcast, a website, and a YouTube channel with dramatic preview videos that make history come alive for students of all ages. It’s multimedia, multidisciplinary, and best of all: it’s free.
Intended for anyone with an interest in climate change or the past, The Climate Chronicles will help you understand global warming in a whole new way.*
*Podcast summary taken from “about” section of The Climate Chronicles website.
Episode 1: A Shore on Svalbard
In the introductory episode of The Climate Chronicles, Professor Degroot uses one of the great adventure stories of the seventeenth century – the tale of fourteen men deserted on two Arctic islands – to introduce the history of climate change. Read or listen
Episode 2: Antecedents of the Anthropocene
The second episode of The Climate Chronicles is also the first episode of the podcast’s first season, “Becoming Human.” In this episode, Professor Degroot introduces the far-fetched possibility that humanity might not be the first intelligent species to overheat the Earth. By exploring this idea, he explains how scientists piece together the deep history of climate change on Earth. Read or listen
