Climate, Environment and Food Connections – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Societal Resilience. International Workshop 19–21 September 2023, Uppsala University

The workshop aims at interdisciplinary exchange concerning the drivers of climate and environmental change as well as the societal responses towards these changes across time and space. Through land use and food production human societies have been transforming their environments at least since the transition to agriculture (Southwest Asia/Europe ca. 9000-3500 BC). At the same time food production systems have always been vulnerable to climate and environmental change, which might alter important variables such as the availability of water, the presence of pests or other crucial ecosystem services. Understanding the causes and effects between the different factors of change, however, is far from straightforward and requires interdisciplinary research.
Today, there is an unprecedented amount of data on past climate change, on human cultural evolution and human-environment interactions in different fields. Climate and environmental indicators (so called proxies) preserved in e.g., sediments, ice cores or speleothems help to trace past climate and environmental change. Archaeological data offers understandings of human behaviour and bio-cultural interactions in the deep past. Case studies and forecasts might reveal
current and past vulnerabilities, mitigation strategies and adaptations to environmental change. Understanding the drivers of such dynamics and how human societies responded might help build resilient pathways for the future. The workshop seeks to address questions, such as:
- What can we learn about the past climate from natural archives and what are their limitations?
- How can human impact on the environment be disentangled from other drivers of environmental change?
- How did and do societies react towards climate and environmental change and what helps to build resilience?
- How did and does climate change affect food-systems and what can be learned from past and present examples?