Month: October 2015

“We have named this volume Klima. (“κλίμα period”). This terse but dynamic moniker fits the tone of the contributions, which revive a multivocal and inclusive understanding of a venerable but elusive term. We seek to decouple Klima from its current exclusive association with atmospheric sciences and revisit the implications of an ancient vocabulary for medical, geographical, agricultural, economic, racial, and other “endemic” concerns. If climate is not just about the weather, what is it? What does it seek to explain? When is climate invoked? By whom? For what purposes? How are other “key words” linked with it, such as culture, society, civilization, time, and change? In what ways is climate a proxy for other concerns such as regulation, industry, and identity? When is it not an explanation at all? Where is climate incarnated? And how does it matter?”