Ringvorlesung: Klimageschichte

The existence of a relationship between weather and climate variations and the occurrence of many diseases has been acknowledged for centuries. This relationship has been bought to new attention with the ongoing global warming, but any such links remain elusive despite the clear seasonal cycle of numerous diseases. The climate–disease links are in many ways clearer in historical times than in the contemporary world, and the scholarship of the past two decades offers many new insights. This lecture will present three examples from Europe: (1) the possible connection between climate variability in central Asia as well as within Europe itself for the occurrence of the medieval plague outbreaks including the Justinian Plague (541–549) and the Black Death (1346–1353). (2) The strong relationship between warm early summers and the severity of malaria outbreaks in northern Europe prior to the twentieth century when this disease still was endemic across Europe all the way up to the Arctic Circle. (3) Epidemics causing mass mortality related to undernourishment following adverse climate conditions for grain and/or pastoral agriculture.