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Abstract:
Toward the end of the nineteenth and at the beginning of twentieth century significant
discussions occurred among geographers, meteorologists and "climatologists" concerned with
the notion of climate variability (Klimaschwankungen) and anthropogenic climate change
(Klimawandcllimaéinderungen), for instance, due to deforestation and reforestation. We
identify two protagonists of this debate, Eduard Brückner and Julius Hann, who both accept
the notion of climate variability on the decadal scale, but respond in very different ways to
the discovery of climate change. Bruckner assessed the impact of climate variability on
society (e.g., on health, the balance of trade, emigration to the USA), arid. tried to bring these
to the attention of the public, whereas Harm limited himself to the immediate natural
scientific problem of monitoring and documenting climate variability.
We suggest that these discussions and the formation of national governmental and
parliamentary committees almost 100 hundred years ago, are not merely of historical interest.
In View of presents discussion of climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, and
the need for of adequate socio-economic response strategies, past and now neglected
arguments may prove important for methodological and theoretical as well as for practical
reasons. The past discussions represent a significant social and intellectual analogy for the present situation.
