On the Climates of History

There is a body of paleoclimatic techniques capable at present of producing broad background information on the climates of almost any period in the history of man. A body of climatic theory exists that makes the cross-checking and inter-relating of climatic data possible as well as a collection of ecological principles which can be applied to the man-climate relationship. There are indications that research in the near future will provide climatic data which are much more specific in time and place although probably never with the detail of an instrumental record. Several conferences and workshops have now expanded the dialogue between historians and paleoclimatologists. When historians learn to use what the climatologists can provide, and the climatologists focus their efforts on areas and times of particular interest rather than on data sets and places which are basically targets of opportunity a new collaboration may emerge that will help to answer the why as well as the what of human history.