This site shares interdisciplinary climate change research with scholars, journalists, students, policymakers, and the general public.
We explain how cutting-edge scholarship about past climate change can shed new light on issues relevant to present and future warming. While we love climate science in all its forms, we emphasize climate change scholarship in disciplines other than the sciences, including: history, economics, political science, and law. We also feature research that links past, present, and future climate change to the human experience.
Have past climate changes caused some societies to collapse, while others succeeded? Did past societies perceive climate changes, and to what effect? Is climate change responsible for present-day conflict? Can we trust computer simulations of future climate change, and why? This site explores all of these questions, and many more.
Have past climate changes caused some societies to collapse, while others succeeded? Did past societies perceive climate changes, and to what effect? Is climate change responsible for present-day conflict? Can we trust computer simulations of future climate change, and why? This site explores all of these questions, and many more.
We were founded in April 2010, and we started as a research blog.
Dr. Dagomar Degroot, now a professor of environmental history at Georgetown University, was in the middle of a months-long archival trip to Amsterdam. He founded HistoricalClimatology.com to share his progress through seventeenth-century ship logbooks: a hot new source for scholars of past climate change. By the end of 2010, HistoricalClimatology.com was on course to receive nearly 10,000 unique hits for the year, many from interested lay people. The site had tapped into a popular desire for unconventional, interdisciplinary climate research that could shed new light on global warming.
Today, Historical Climatology.com provides bimonthly feature articles about climate change research, written by some of the most dynamic climate scholars. It offers monthly updates on the most interesting climate change web articles, and comprehensive quarterly updates on scholarship about past climate changes. It presents interviews with key newsmakers in climate change research, policymaking, and journalism, as well as updates on projects by leading interdisciplinary scholars. It provides extensive resources that let our visitors explore past climate changes for themselves.
Today, Historical Climatology.com provides bimonthly feature articles about climate change research, written by some of the most dynamic climate scholars. It offers monthly updates on the most interesting climate change web articles, and comprehensive quarterly updates on scholarship about past climate changes. It presents interviews with key newsmakers in climate change research, policymaking, and journalism, as well as updates on projects by leading interdisciplinary scholars. It provides extensive resources that let our visitors explore past climate changes for themselves.
We currently receive around 500,000 hits per year. Over 100,000 are unique hits.
Articles on our site have been widely used in university courses in the sciences and the humanities. We have been cited by BBC News, and listed among the top online resources on climate change. We are funded by a Georgetown University Research Infrastructure Award, and a Georgetown Environment Initiative Impact Program award. These awards allow us to expand our online and offline resources while remaining 100% ad-free.
HistoricalClimatology.com is associated with the Climate History Network, an informal organization of nearly 200 teachers and researchers interested in climate and history. Stories on HistoricalClimatology.com are usually posted on the CHN homepage, and both organizations share a Facebook page. However, whereas the CHN presents resources exclusively for academics, HistoricalClimatology.com reaches a much wider audience. Unlike the CHN, HistoricalClimatology.com explicitly links the latest academic insights about the past to our understanding of the present and future.
If you wish to contribute content or ideas, or if you would like an interview with one of our academics, please contact us.
HistoricalClimatology.com is associated with the Climate History Network, an informal organization of nearly 200 teachers and researchers interested in climate and history. Stories on HistoricalClimatology.com are usually posted on the CHN homepage, and both organizations share a Facebook page. However, whereas the CHN presents resources exclusively for academics, HistoricalClimatology.com reaches a much wider audience. Unlike the CHN, HistoricalClimatology.com explicitly links the latest academic insights about the past to our understanding of the present and future.
If you wish to contribute content or ideas, or if you would like an interview with one of our academics, please contact us.