Welcome to Micro-Climate!
By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative
Welcome to Micro-Climate, the new small-size climate blog series from the Society for Historical Archaeology!
This blog series is part of the Society for Historical Archaeology’s (SHA) new Climate Heritage Initiative (CHI), which has the twin goals of growing capacity to work on and speak about climate change across the field of historical archaeology and building a new clear voice from SHA about archaeology, heritage, and climate change that will reach out widely. This small but mighty blog is taking on the challenge of doing both.
Twice a week, climate archaeologist Marcy Rockman (and occasionally a guest writer) will share a piece of recent climate-related news with commentary from an archaeological, heritage, and/or cultural perspective in 300 words or less.
With that, there’s no better place to start than this recent essay in The Conversation. In May and June of this year, there was a spate of articles about despair amongst climate scientists about the lack of sufficient progress in addressing climate change in the face of accelerating change and impacts. While this despair is not unwarranted, this article makes the key point that “…the concerns and practices of climate social scientists have not featured prominently in these discussions.” This is a significant oversight because
“Climate natural scientists are not trained to understand why people aren’t listening to their entreaties or the obstacles to and opportunities for action. Climate social scientists, on the other hand…are experts in humanity’s efforts to address climate change.”
To be clear, I put archaeologists who work with processes of industrialization, colonization and globalization that have developed the modern world, and methods and practices of working with communities to engage with their histories, equity, and environmental justice in the column of climate social scientists.
As the essay notes, “The climate social science community starts their teaching and research where the bulk of the “climate scientists are despairing” type articles end their discussions.” Indeed. Archaeology in relation to climate change is a path for hope. This is where we begin.
For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.
Photo credit: Inspirational quote drawn from Hoffman, M., Here’s how climate social scientists are finding their way in the era of climate crisis, The Conversation (2024), shared at link above.
