Eduard Bruckner

by Bruckner, Eduard; Stehr, Nico; Von Storch, Hans; Stehr, Barbara; Gamlin, Gordon; Bruckner, Eduard

• ISBN13: 9780792361282
• ISBN10: 0792361288
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

This anthology of studies by the eminent geographer and climate scientist Eduard Brückner (1862-1927) on anthropogenic climate change and the social, political and economic impact of climate variations on societies in historical times, assembles his pioneering work in English for the first time. The issues discussed by Brückner are now considered to be among the most pressing facing modern society and climate research. At the turn of the twentieth century, Brückner was one of the central protagonists in a vigorous debate in science and society about global climate variability and its political and economic significance. The studies published here were chosen to demonstrate Brückner 's wide-ranging scientific interest in climate variability, his extensive empirical research and theoretical analysis of climate change, his assessment of contemporary analyses and thinking about anthropogenic climate change (such as the widespread concern about desiccation), and how he approached the questions of the transfer of scientific knowledge into society. In many ways Brückner was a thoroughly modern scientist, convinced, for example, that the issue of climate change and its impact was of considerable scientific merit and that future climate changes are of great significance for the well-being of humankind as well as for the global balance of political and economic relations. Brückner 's formidable ideas should have a significant impact on our present views of climate, climate variability and climate impact.

Table of Contents

About the Editors	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Eduard Bruckner's Ideas - Relevant in His Time and Today
Nico Stehr
Hans von Storch
Introduction	1	(2)
Temporal Flow of Ideas and the Failure of Diffusion	1	(2)
Organization of This Book	3	(3)
The Climate Scientist Eduard Bruckner	6	(5)
The Life of Eduard Bruckner	6	(2)
Eduard Bruckner's Analysis of Climate Variability	8	(3)
Climate Change, Climate Policies and Society	11	(9)
Julius Hann and His View of Climate Variability	13	(3)
Climate Variability and Societal Importance	16	(2)
The Analogy to the Present State of Affairs	18	(2)
Conclusions	20	(1)
Bibliography	21	(4)
Groundwater and Typhus	25	(22)
Fluctuations of Water Levels in the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and Baltic Sea Relative to Weather	47	(16)
The Annual Water Level Cycle	49	(3)
Secular Water Level Variations	52	(11)
How Constant is Today's Climate	63	(14)
Climate Change since 1700	77	(116)
The Current Status of the Inquiry into Climate	77	(50)
Climate of the Geological Past	79	(9)
Views and Opinions about Climate Change in Historical Times	88	(28)
Meteorological Cycles	116	(11)
Periodicity of Climatic Variations derived from Observations of Ice Conditions on Rivers, the Date of Grape Harvest and the Frequency of Severe Winters	127	(44)
Secular Variations of the River Ice	127	(18)
Secular Variations of the Time of the Grape Harvest	145	(18)
Secular Variations of the Frequency of Cold Winters	163	(8)
The Significance of Climatic Variations in Theory and Practice	171	(22)
About the Influence of Snow Cover on the Climate of the Alps	193	(26)
Influence of Climate Variability on Harvest and Grain Prices in Europe	219	(24)
Weather Prophets	243	(12)
An Inquiry about the 35-Year-Period Climatic Variations	255	(14)
Water Level Fluctuations in the Kirghiz Steppe and Fluctuations of Rainfall in Russia since 1860	256	(4)
Decreasing Rainfall in the United States since the Middle of the the 80's	260	(2)
Rainfall Fluctuations from 1830 to 1900 in the United States, as well as at some Stations in Central Europe and East Siberia	262	(7)
About Climate Variability	269	(16)
Climate Variability and Mass Migration	285	(14)
The Settlement of the United States as Controlled by Climate and Climate Oscillations	299	(14)
List of Publications of Eduard Bruckner	313	(14)
Climate	313	(2)
Glaciers	315	(2)
Morphology	317	(2)
Hydrology	319	(2)
Oceanography	321	(1)
Polar Research	322	(1)
Cartography	322	(1)
Biographical	323	(1)
Miscellaneous	324	(3)
Subject Index	327	(8)
Name Index	335