The Colonial Roots and Legacies of Climate Science
The Researchers
Dr. Tom SimpsonLink opens in a new window, Reader in Environmental History, has developed the project with members of the 'Making Climate History' team at the University of Cambridge.
The Challenge
It is increasingly recognised that legacies of European and Western colonialism shape unequal vulnerability and exposure to present-day, human-caused climate and environmental change. Less discussed is how colonialism was a critical force in creating the methods and infrastructures through which shifting climate and environments are measured and understood. Bringing to light the patterns of inequality and unevenness embedded in our ways of knowing environments is a crucial precursor to developing sciences that align with, and enable, key ethical goals like climate justice.
Our Approach
Rather than starting in Western Europe and North America like most histories of climate science, Simpson and his collaborators drew on their expertise in colonial histories in diverse locations in the Global South. By mining previously overlooked published and archival sources, taking a lead role in synthesising new historical scholarship taking a similar approach, and sharing key findings with climate scientists and policymakers, the project aspires to contribute to more equitable environmental sciences and policies.
Our Impact
The project still has a long way to go, and a key aim is to lead to a fundamental revision of how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) narrates the history of climate science in its next Assessment Report (due to be published in 2028). Early outputs (especially Harriet Mercer and Thomas Simpson, 'Imperialism, Colonialism, and Climate Change Science, WIREs Climate Change, 2023) have already garnered significant interest from scientists and policymakers, resulting in a burgeoning collaboration with the '' strand of the World Climate Research Program. Simpson has also presented key findings to an expert audience at the UK Meteorlogical Office, contributing to an important initiative by a working group of British meteorological scientists to understand and work through the imperial legacies of their discipline. The next phase of the project will combine targeted publications in key climate science-policy journals, such as Nature Climate Change, with oral presentations to scientific and policymaking audience, and the development of sustained engagement with the author team of the forthcoming IPCC Assessment Report. There will also be an expansion of existing efforts to present elements of the underlying research to public audiences, fostering wider understanding of the need to rectify uneven knowledge in order to respond justly and effectively to climate and environmental crises.
