ICS Seminar Series

What can the history of climate change tell us about contemporary climate change scenarios? This paper is based on an ARC-funded Discovery project with Gregory Barton titled Saving the World the First Time. It explores how ideas of human-induced climate change led to major social and political changes in the 19th century. Many of these changes were justified by the idea that trees influenced climate. These ideas fell out of favour scientifically in the 20th century but have recently been renewed through global warming and other climate change models. Associate Professor Brett Bennett will review these ideas and make suggestions for how public discussions about climate change can be changed to be more accommodative and positive.