Desert edens : colonial climate engineering in the age of anxiety / Philipp Lehmann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lehmann, Philipp, author.

Series:

Histories of economic life.

Princeton scholarship online.

Histories of economic life

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental geotechnology--History--19th century.

Environmental geotechnology.

Environmental geotechnology--History--20th century.

Desertification--History--19th century.

Desertification.

Desertification--History--20th century.

Climatic changes--History--19th century.

Climatic changes.

Climatic changes--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2023]

Summary:

From the 1870s to the mid-twentieth century, European explorers, climatologists, colonial officials, and planners were avidly interested in large-scale projects that might actively alter the climate. Uncovering this history, this book looks at how arid environments and an increasing anxiety about climate in the colonial world shaped this upsurge in ideas about climate engineering. From notions about the transformation of deserts into forests to Nazi plans to influence the climates of war-torn areas, Philipp Lehmann puts the early climate-change debate in its environmental, intellectual, and political context, and considers the ways this legacy reverberates in the present climate crisis.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Climate Change And Changing Climates

1. A Science Of Sand: The Sahara As Archive And Warning

2. Flooding The Desert: Roudaire's Sahara Sea Project

3. New Garden Edens: The Rise Of Colonial Climate Engineering

4. A New Climate for a New Continent: Herman Sörgel's Atlantropa

5. Europe's Last Hope: Active Geopolitics And Cultural Decline

6. Slavic Steppes And German Gardens: Desertification in the Third Reich

7. Eastern Deserts: Climate And Genocide in the Generalplan Ost

8. Epilogue: Global Desertification And Global Warming

Notes

Archives

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2022.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on June 6, 2023).

ISBN:

0-691-23828-6

OCLC:

1336990140