New IHOPE Paper on Famines and Climate Change

IHOPE SSC member Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, alongside Andrea Seim and Dominik Collet, has published a new paper in WIREs. The paper Famines in medieval and early modern Europe—Connecting climate and society examines how and to what extent climate change has been causally attributed to influencing famines in medieval and early modern Europe. Their study shows that a complex interwoven web of relations between the environment, the climate, and social actions is influential on the occurrence of and responses to famines.  What is interesting to consider is how historical research such as this, on connections between famines and climate change as well as social responses, can be used to establish more resilient food systems today.

IHOPE SSC member Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist is Professor of History, particularly Historical Geography, at Stockholm University. In addition, he is Associate Professor of Physical Geography at the same university as well as Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. He is also affiliated to the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University.

The full paper on famines and climate change is open access and available to read here. 

A list of all of IHOPE’s publications can be accessed here.