The developing Enlightenment brought new perspectives to the causes and impacts of climate. One thing I was particularly interested in was the variety of ways that enlightenment thinkers engaged with the climates they lived in. There is of course a tendency for writers to ascribe their own climate as superior to others, as seen in the general belief that the rainy, relatively mild English climate was good for health. However, I was surprised that some English meteorologists believed that their climate was not necessarily ideal. To me this ability to critique one’s own home is representative of a shift towards a more empirical approach to science.
A general theme in this week’s readings was this development of empirical “enlightened” thought. The shift away from local weather diaries is one example of this phenomenon. Another is the predominant idea among thinkers that events such as comets and meteor showers were not signs from God. However, it is a mistake to attribute too much advancement to this period. There were still many illogical misconceptions, often grounded in the lack of accurate technology. I think I have mentioned this in class before, but I feel there is a tendency to see the enlightenment as a turning point in history before which people were stupid or uneducated. I do not think history functions in this way. The enlightenment has been given significance as a period of great intellectual progress for good reason, many critical discoveries were made in that time, but that does not detract from the value of its predecessors. It also does not excuse the many racist, sexist, and generally unethical ideologies that lay underneath the advancements of the age.
One detail that I was particularly interested in was the idea that an increased sensitivity, as was becoming popular in high society, could lead to people becoming overly sensitive. I would like to be able to explore this link between sensitivity to the environment and a broader cultural shift in more detail. Especially since being “too sensitive” was seen as feminine. This of course leads into the idea that women fall ill with “hysteria” or “melancholia” and do not require proper medical care. It continues to be difficult for women to get the medical care they need, especially women of color. While this would not have begun in this period, I am curious how this wave of sentiment might interact with our current perceptions of the global environment and women’s place in it.
A final theme I have been coming back to with this course is the similarity between how we engage with climate now, and how we engaged with it during the enlightenment. The readings for this week describe many people attempting to understand something outside of the scope of their world. This reminds me of the difficulties that we are currently having with adding human behavior to climate models. Although I am not sure if human behavior can or should be modeled, seeing this similarity makes me more interested in watching an attempt. Additionally, I notice that there is an element of superstition around climate that we have not escaped from. Then, as now, there are people who will blame a bad climate for the consequences of human actions. During the enlightenment this might be that areas outside of Europe had less ideal climates and thus the people living there could not achieve things to the extent of their European counterparts. Now you might see someone freaking out about forever chemicals or microplastics in their children’s’ toys. The expectation being that you should buy your way out of an unhealthy climate.
Having just read Braiding Sweetgrass for an environmental studies course at Bryn Mawr, I feel stuck in this ideology. To me one of the most difficult things about environmental advocacy is the feeling that we have not moved forward very much. We still view the environment as a resource to be extracted from, leftovers from the colonial era we claim to have left behind. Yet at the same time we interact with the environment like it something totally separate from us, something that is both greater than our comprehension and completely controllable with the right amount of effort. I want to believe that someday we will be able to view ourselves as part of a complex global ecosystem that we can work alongside and give back to.