new article proposes new approach to exploring climate change

a new article by dr. pallavi das proposing a new approach to doing history, a people's history of climate change, appears in the most recent issue of the journal history compass.

while social scientific studies have provided useful insights into the phenomenon of climate change, they, however, do not take a historical approach to the impacts of climate change, and people's perception of it.

historians have studied climate and its impact on the whole society but have neglected the everyday experiences and perceptions of climate change within a society such as ordinary people versus the elite perceptions, men versus women's experiences of climate change. moreover, historians of climate have largely dealt with natural climate change in the distant past, but not with climate change caused by human activities.

since climate change that the world is witnessing in the past century is largely anthropogenic, historians therefore cannot neglect present‐day climate change and its impact on society. furthermore, although climate change is a global environmental phenomenon, the poor and the marginalized social groups are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change more than others. hence, climate change and the history of climate change needs to be understood from the perspective of these vulnerable groups in a society.

"people's history of climate change" proposes a new approach to doing history: people's history of climate change.

the article appears in history compass 16, no. 10 (october 2018). https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12497