Climate by Proxy: A History of Scientific Reconstructions of the Past and Future

How twentieth-century scientists used proxies to understand historic climates, shaping scientific analyses of the past and the future.

Unlike our daily reckoning with the weather, our experience of climate must be mediated through methods that measure the ebb and flow of climate, such as computer models, instruments like thermometers, and organic and inorganic remains known as “proxies.” Climate by Proxy by Melissa Charenko explores how scientists read the record of past climates and how th...