Before our highly politicized times, it was once imagined that the weather was a safe topic of conversation [1]. Obviously that is no longer the case. The fault for this extends in at least two directions. On the one hand, weather has been used as a causal factor in arguing that temperate climates are better suited to the development of advanced civilizations because it is so hard for tropical societies to do anything, and because in the contemporary period the tropical regions of the world are filled with such abject poverty and failure that it is easy to blame the weather for their absence of achievement. In contrast to beliefs about geographical determinism, though, the subject of weather and climate has become highly political due to conflicts about the direction, extent, and responsibility for alleged anthropogenic climate change, a matter of considerably dubious provenance. Sadly, in our troubled times, not…
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James' Ramblings 