Jean-Baptiste FRESSOZ and Fabien LOCHER
Les Révoltes du ciel Une histoire du changement climatique, XVe-XXe siècle
Editions du Seuil, 2020, 320 p.
From the dawn of the modern era to the mid-20th century, Western societies debated climate change, its causes, and its effects on ecological, social, and political balances. At the time, there was no concern about CO2
or the greenhouse effect. Instead, it was thought that cutting down forests and transforming the planet would alter rainfall, temperatures, and seasons. This question was asked wherever history was advancing at a rapid pace: by the Conquistadors in the New World, by the revolutionaries of 1789, by the scholars and political leaders of the 19th century, and by the European imperialists in Asia and Africa until World War II.
This investigation recounts for the first time the anxieties and hopes of societies that, subject to the vagaries of the weather, think about and anticipate climate change. It shows that climate change was at the heart of fundamental debates on colonization, God, the state, nature, and capitalism, and that certain key concepts of contemporary environmental policy and science emerged from these battles. While industry and science have, for a brief period, instilled in us the reassuring illusion of an unchanging climate, in this era of global warming, we must once again face the revolts of the heavens.