4 North American Climate History
In: Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America
Authors:
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Samuel White
Samuel White
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Kenneth M. Sylvester
Kenneth M. Sylvester
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Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker
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Abstract
North American climate history represents a new but rapidly growing field of interdisciplinary research. Relative to Europe and Asia, documentary data for historical climate reconstruction in the present US and Canada remain scarce. However, research into physical climate proxies such as tree rings, the archaeology of Native American (or First Nation) societies, written sources, and early instrumental measurements has begun to extend knowledge of the continent’s past weather and climate and their historical impacts. This chapter presents a brief overview of the historiography and sources for the field, followed by a longer chronological summary of the role of climate and weather in North American history since the first human arrivals.