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Canadian Climate History Workshop, 2008

Event Info
Event Date: 
Oct 23 2008 - Oct 24 2008
Venue: 
University of Western Ontario
City: 
London
Country: 
Canada
Primary Contact Name: 
Liza Piper & Alan MacEachern

A two-day workshop held at the University of Western Ontario, which featured speakers from across Canada, as well as from the United States and Spain.

Workshop objectives:

  • Assess available documentary materials for the study of past climates in Canada
  • Prioritize the most important collections / datasets -- from the perspective of Canadian history, the physical and natural sciences, and public interest (policy)
  • Identify how best to work with and make broadly accessible this material
  • Identify research strengths and weaknesses in Canadian climate history

Organizers

Alan MacEachern
(History, University of Western Ontario)
amaceach@uwo.ca
Liza Piper
(History, University of Alberta)
epiper@ualberta.ca

Presenters

Katharine Anderson "Climate History and Science: Synergy or Lowest Common Denominator?"
An associate professor in the Science and Society department at York University, Anderson's research focuses on meteorology and oceanography.
Richard Anderson "Measuring and Mapping Toronto’s Heat Island"
Anderson is a sessional lecturer in the Geography department at York University. He studies historical and cultural geography as well as environmental history.
George Colpitts "Reading the Climate in Hudson's Bay Company Records"
An assistant professor of History at the University of Calgary, Colpitts studies the history of Canada's fur trade, as well as Western and Northern Canadian history.
Martin Comeau "the Association of Canadian Archivists’ Climate Records and Information Special Interest Section (CRISIS)"
Comeau is an archivist at the City of Winnipeg Archives and recently served as the Secretary of the Association of Canadian Archives’ Municipal Archives Special Interest Section
Brian Fagan ‘And on that day the earth will be burned to ashes': An Archaeologist Looks at Ancient Climate Change
Fagan began his career in a Zambian Museum before moving the the United States. A longtime professor of Anthropology at the University of California, he recently retired from teaching. His writing is world-renowned. His latest book, The Great Warming, is part of a larger series dedicated to the history of climate change and related topics.
Ricardo Garcia Herrera "Logbooks and Other Documentary Sources to Reconstruct Climate Variability in the Last 500 Years"
Ricardo García Herrera teaches Atmospheric Physics in the Complutense University in Madrid. He has done extensive research into climate reconstruction and was instrumental in bringing a large volume of ship logbooks together for climate researchers through Climatological Database for the World's Oceans 1750-1850 (CLIWOC), which was released in 2003. García Herrera is also the co-ordinator of the Spanish network of climate reconstruction from documentary sources (RECLIDO).
Chris Kocot "Climate and Weather Records at Environment Canada"
Kocot is the Manager of the Data Development Unit at Environment Canada.
Katrina Moser "Using Historical Records of Climate Change in Paleoenvironmental Research"
An associate professor of Geography at the University of Western Ontario, Moser is an expert on water quality and quantity issues.
Tim Newfield "The Making of a Global Climatic Event: Written Evidence, Natural Proxies, and Scholarly Debate, 1980-2008"
Newfield is a PhD candidate in History at McGill University. His historical interests concern environmental and biological phenomena of pre-industrial Europe.
Karen Pennesi "Archiving Indigenous Weather Knowledge: How & Why?"
Pennesi teaches in the Anthropology department at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on the mediating function of language in human relationships with nature.
Leah Sanders "the Association of Canadian Archivists’ Climate Records and Information Special Interest Section (CRISIS)"
Sanders is an archivist at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.
Victoria Slonosky "Two and a Half Centuries of Climate Variability from the St Lawrence Valley"
Slonosky is a historical climatologist.
Scott St. George "Historical Climate Data from the Perspective of Physical Paleoclimatology"
A PhD candidate at the University of Arizona, St.George also works for the Geological Survey of Canada. He is an expert in dendrochronology and past environmental change.
Morley Thomas "Bibliographies: Climate Data & Meteorological History"
Retired from his position of senior meteorologist at Environment Canada, Thomas is the foremost historian of Canadian meteorology.
Heather Tompkins "Historical Climatology on the Southern Yukon Territory, 1842-1852"
Tompkins is a geomatics technician in the Architecture and Geomatics section of Library and Archives Canada.
Charlotte Woodley "the Association of Canadian Archivists’ Climate Records and Information Special Interest Section (CRISIS)"
Woodley is an archivist at the Region of Waterloo Archives.

Participants

Tom Belton
(Archives & Research Collection Centre, University of Western Ontario)
Colin Coates
(Canadian Studies, Glendon College, York University)
Dagomar Degroot
(PhD student History, York University)
Matthew Eisler
(Harris Steel postdoctoral fellow, History, University of Western Ontario)
Lois Fenton
(M.A. student Public History, University of Western Ontario)
Clare Gordon
(Global Studies, Huron University College, University of Western Ontario)
Kimberley Gravelle
(Environment Canada)
Noor Johnson
(PhD student, McGill University)
Mike Kenigsberg
(PhD student Geography, University of Western Ontario)
Arlen Leeming
(MSc student Environment & Sustainability, University of Western Ontario)
Brian Luckman
(Geography, University of Western Ontario)
Jeremy Marks
(PhD student History, University of Western Ontario)
Jess Metcalfe
(PhD student Environment & Sustainability, University of Western Ontario)
David Morimoto
(PhD student Geography, University of Western Ontario)
Joy Parr
(Geography, University of Western Ontario)
Tom Peace
(PhD student History, York University)
Carolyn Podruchny
(History, York University)
Bill Rannie
(Geography, University of Winnipeg)
Cheryl Robertson
(Data Analysis & Archives, Environment Canada)
Jeremy Schmidt
(PhD student Geography, University of Western Ontario)
Bradley Skopyk
(PhD student History, York University)
Andrew Watson
(PhD student History, York University)
Krista Weger
(PhD student History, York University)
James Woollett
(History, Laval University)
Kimberley Schwartz
(MSc, Environment & Sustainability, University of Western Ontario)
Craig Woodward
(Postdoc, Geography, University of Western Ontario)
Schedule / Programme
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