This project funded by the Science, Technology & Society Program supports a conference on historical perspectives on climate change at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, 1-4 April 2009. This conference, titled "Climate Change Science, Environmental Challenges, and Cultural Anxiety: Historical Perspectives," is international in scope, interdisciplinary in nature, and intergenerational in its inclusion of both graduate and undergraduate students. Efforts are made to recruit minority participants and those from underrepresented groups. A conference plenary session is advertised to the general public. The conference is followed by discussion of the presented papers being prepared for a special issue of Osiris, v. 26, which also includes written commentaries from this meeting. Graduate and undergraduate students are involved, with the former presenting their work in a special session aimed at dissertation improvement and the latter reading all the pre-circulated papers and serving as conference staff and attendees.
The field of historical studies of climate and its changes has begun to emerge in the past decade and is now poised to attract and engage a critical mass of new and existing talent. Ten years ago this gathering would not have been possible. Today, it represents the cutting edge of a growing field, with direct relevance to climate change in its scientific and social aspects and to best practices in the history of science and technology as applied both internally and to public policy considerations. The intent is to produce a volume out of this conference that is both fully historical and fully relevant. This meeting will bring new perspectives to bear on a pressing set of public issues, consolidate that which is known and that which needs further exploration, and serve as a defining moment for historical work in this interdisciplinary field.
