Thomas Ford, Monash University

Not until the beginning of the nineteenth century was the word “atmosphere” first used to denote the element or material of thought (OED s.v. “atmosphere”). This same period witnessed a dramatic increase in the prominence and frequency of the word “climate” being used similarly, to refer to a set of prevailing conditions that shape ideas while remaining largely unremarked. Today, such uses of “atmosphere” and “climate” are metaphoric. But in Romantic-period Britain, they were not metaphoric, but quite literal. Opinions and ideas were understood to be made of air; perceptions to be aerially mediated. In turn, words and thoughts were seen to colour and inflect the air that bore them, thereby materially altering the climate. In this sense, atmosphere came to be understood as a mass medium of communication, positioning climate as an overarching framework for modern culture.

This paper identifies the early nineteenth century in Britain as a formative moment in the cultural history of climate change, when the modern sciences of atmosphere first came into being and when atmosphere and weather became newly central to art and literature. Drawing on Romantic aesthetic and scientific practices from Wordsworth to Ruskin and Priestley to Davy, the paper establishes historical links between science and literature, climate and culture, that can help re-engage the humanities with climate change debates today.