Extreme weather events and their consequences always offer an opportunity for reflecting on how humans think about risk and uncertainty, and the different techniques involved in attempts at the prediction or anticipation of future developments. My interest in this is twofold: partly, involvement in a Bristol research group and a conference in November on the new(ish) interdisciplinary field of anticipation, and partly my teaching and research on ancient environmental history – both of which I really need to find time to write about more. As far as the latter is concerned, my focus is less on the reconstruction of ancient environmental conditions (we have scientists for that sort of thing, and brilliant interdisciplinary researchers like Michael McCormick at Harvard) than on the human factor: how Roman culture and patterns of thought were shaped by, and in turn shaped, the different environments which the Romans colonised. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘floods’
Same Procedure As Every Year Once Again
Posted in Musings, Research in Progress, tagged drought, environmental history, floods, water on December 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Sphinx 