Climate Change through the Lens of Historical Progression

Abstract

Historical inquiry into the events of the past has helped us fathom better knowledge of the present and tracing the history of climate change can be a crucial determinant of this phenomenon. Climate change has been a prolonged, recurring phenomenon throughout the history of the globe and it has dictated survival of species and persistence of cultures to a great extent. This paper engages with several secondary documents and sporadically uses the Rajatarangini as the primary source to trace the ecological context of the subcontinent and relevance of the issue of climate change through a historical lens across different geological epochs, phases and episodes of history. It also entails the intersection of history and its sister disciplines in the broad study of climate change and attempts to look at the linkage with scholarly scrutiny. Moreover, the paper brings in the element of contemporariness embedded in the issue of climate change and comments on its increasing imprints on the social spheres of existence.