Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water
We revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate was established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical content (average weathe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/6/849 |
| _version_ | 1797540606394761216 |
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| author | Demetris Koutsoyiannis |
| author_facet | Demetris Koutsoyiannis |
| author_sort | Demetris Koutsoyiannis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate was established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical content (average weather) in modern times after meteorological measurements had become common. Yet the modern definitions of climate are seriously affected by the wrong perception of the previous two centuries that climate should regularly be constant, unless an external agent acts upon it. Therefore, we attempt to give a more rigorous definition of climate, consistent with the modern body of stochastics. We illustrate the definition by real-world data, which also exemplify the large climatic variability. Given this variability, the term “climate change” turns out to be scientifically unjustified. Specifically, it is a pleonasm as climate, like weather, has been ever-changing. Indeed, a historical investigation reveals that the aim in using that term is not scientific but political. Within the political aims, water issues have been greatly promoted by projecting future catastrophes while reversing true roles and causality directions. For this reason, we provide arguments that water is the main element that drives climate, and not the opposite. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T13:03:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-20278b3e4ea7453bab8f35e1243849d9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T13:03:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-20278b3e4ea7453bab8f35e1243849d92023-11-21T11:15:28ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412021-03-0113684910.3390/w13060849Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with WaterDemetris Koutsoyiannis0Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, GreeceWe revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate was established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical content (average weather) in modern times after meteorological measurements had become common. Yet the modern definitions of climate are seriously affected by the wrong perception of the previous two centuries that climate should regularly be constant, unless an external agent acts upon it. Therefore, we attempt to give a more rigorous definition of climate, consistent with the modern body of stochastics. We illustrate the definition by real-world data, which also exemplify the large climatic variability. Given this variability, the term “climate change” turns out to be scientifically unjustified. Specifically, it is a pleonasm as climate, like weather, has been ever-changing. Indeed, a historical investigation reveals that the aim in using that term is not scientific but political. Within the political aims, water issues have been greatly promoted by projecting future catastrophes while reversing true roles and causality directions. For this reason, we provide arguments that water is the main element that drives climate, and not the opposite.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/6/849climateclimate changewaterhydrologyclimatology |
| spellingShingle | Demetris Koutsoyiannis Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water Water climate climate change water hydrology climatology |
| title | Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water |
| title_full | Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water |
| title_fullStr | Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water |
| title_short | Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water |
| title_sort | rethinking climate climate change and their relationship with water |
| topic | climate climate change water hydrology climatology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/6/849 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT demetriskoutsoyiannis rethinkingclimateclimatechangeandtheirrelationshipwithwater |