Contested histories of race, climate and development [book review essay]

Winlow, H ORCID: 0009-0008-5496-395X (2025) Contested histories of race, climate and development [book review essay]. Scottish Geographical Journal, 141 (3-4). pp. 475-481.

Text 17881.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 24 October 2026. | Request more information

Abstract

In 'The Empire of Climate' Livingstone examines the antecedents to our current-day concerns around the impacts and mitigation of anthropogenic climate change. Key areas of analysis include: zonal climatic theories; assumptions about causal influences of climate on health, wealth and the human body; theories on weather and war; and the development of hierarchical theories of race. The book examines the persistence of determinist and reductionist thought evidenced both in current scientific work on climate change and the often apocalyptic journalistic reports on these issues. Livingstone traces how early ideas about the relationships between climate and humanity have remained remarkably persistent in current debates, including western pejorative ideas about people and places in the global south. This discussion considers firstly, the intersections between environmental/ climatic determinism and race; secondly, mappings of race and climate; and thirdly, reflects on alternative ways of both representing and addressing the impacts of anthropogenic climate change and climate and environmental justice issues.

Item Type:	Other
Note:	Full book details: 'The Empire of Climate: A History of An Idea', by David N. Livingstone, Princeton University Press, Princeton, Oxford, Bejing, 2024, 552 pages, ISBN: 9780691236704 (hbk).
UN SDGs:	Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities Goal 13: Climate Action
Keywords:	anthropogenic climate-change, climate and society, environmental/climate determinism, human evolution, race
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GA Mathematical geography. Cartography G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions:	School of Sciences
Date Deposited:	28 Aug 2026 17:32
Last Modified:	28 Aug 2026 17:32
ISSN:	1470-2541
URN:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/17881

	Request a change to this item or report an issue
	Update item (repository staff only)