Climate (pronounced klahy-mit)
(1) The composite or generally prevailing weather
conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation,
sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of
years (decades, centuries or other epochs).
(2) A region or area characterized by a given climate (often
as climatic zone or with modifiers such as cold-climate, sub-climate,
micro-climate, dry-climate et al).
(3) The prevailing attitudes, standards, or environmental
conditions of a group, period, or place (used in politics, sociology, economics
etc in the sense of mood, atmosphere, spirit, tone, temper etc).
(4) An area of the earth's surface between two parallels
of latitude (obsolete).
(5) A region of the Earth (obsolete).
(6) In contemporary slang, a clipping of “climate change”
and frequent verbal (especially oral) shorthand.
1350–1400: From the Middle English climat, from the Old French climat
(region, part of the earth), from the Late Latin clīmat- (stem of clīma,
from the Ancient Greek κλῐ́νω (klínō) (I
slope, incline)), from klīmat- (stem
of klī́ma (latitude, slope, region (literally
“inclination”), the notion being “slope of the earth from equator to pole”),
the construct being klī- (akin to klī́nein (to slope, lean)) + -ma (the noun suffix), ultimately from a suffixed
form of the primitive Indo-European root klei-
(to lean). The adjective climatic is
sometimes confused with climactic. Climatic
is used of the climate; climactic describe something which forms a climax. Climate is a noun & verb and climatic, climatical
& climatal are adjectives and climatically is an adverb; the noun plural is
climates.
The original meaning in the mid-fourteenth century was purely
geographic, the sense being horizontal zone of the earth's surface measured by
lines parallel to the equator (ie latitude).
From antiquity, geographers and cartographers divided earth into zones
determined by the angle of the sun on the slope of the surface and the length
of daylight. Not knowing what lay beyond
reported (and not always reliable) observations, these zones varied
greatly. Some calculated variously 24 or
30 climates between Meroe on the upper Nile (in modern-day Sudan) and the
mythical Riphaean Mountains which thought to be the Arctic’s boundary, systems
in which as one traced the map north, the climate changed at the point where daylight
was a half hour longer or shorter (according to season) than the starting
point. Others thought cosmically and
listed seven (one for each known planet) or twelve (tied to the signs of the zodiac).
Being a measure of latitude, there was obviously a
tendency for the climates to correlate with temperature, something noticed as
early as the late-fourteenth century and, being practical rather than abstract,
the word came rapidly to be used in the sense of “distinct zones of the earth's
surface associated with changes in weather”.
This meaning shift evolved by the early seventeenth century to make
climate understood as “combined results of weather associated with a region,
the characteristics of a country or region with reference to variation of heat,
cold, humidity, rainfall, wind etc. The
figurative use (the collective mental or moral atmosphere of a group or whole society)
dates from the 1660s. The difference
between climate and “the weather” is that climate is a summary of the long-term
manifestations of weather and other atmospheric conditions (which can be
applied to defined zones or globally).
The modern practice is that climate is a statistical summary of a representative
period and that’s usually generational (ie 25-30 years) but climate modelers
using the geological record and other sources (trees, ice cores etc) can
construct longer epochs in centuries (eg the ice ages) or even millions of
years, the global climate during the age of the dinosaurs often summed up as “warm
& wet”.
Lindsay Lohan pondering climate change.
To acclimatise (or acclimatize) is to acclimate (become
accustomed to) one’s self to the weather conditions prevalent where one find’s
one’s self, a term used also figuratively in the sense of adjusting tastes or
expectations to different cultures. The use
of modifiers is common and can be meteorological (warm-climate, dry-climate, chilly
climate, temperate-climate etc) or figurative (hostile climate, sceptical
climate etc). In the age of
climate-concern, there’s been a growth of such use including climate canary, climate
control, climate denial, climate denier, climate despair, climate emergency, climate
finance, climate doom, climate system, climate-speak and, of course, climate change.
Indeed, the very phrase “climate change”
is a construct which has come widely to be used because it references easily
understood consequences rather than some abstract process. The possible climatic implications of man-made
atmospheric CO2 emissions was discussed as early as 1896 by Swedish
chemist & Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) in a paper called On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air
upon the Temperature of the Ground, his conclusion being that the burning
of fossil fuels could lead to increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, leading a global increase in average temperatures. In the scientific community, his ideas for
decades remained controversial and in the wider community, barely noted and it
wasn’t until the 1950s when researchers, taking advantage of new techniques
made possible by the vastly increased quantity of data which became available
because of wartime advances and a vast expansion of meteorological and atmospheric
measuring, began serious study of the study the potential impact of human
activities on the Earth's climate.
Between the 1970s and the early twenty-first century, a consensus
built in mainstream science that human activities (especially the burning of
fossil fuels), were contributing to global warming and other climatic changes. The early phrase popular in the discussion, at
that stage conducted mostly among scientists and environmentalists (although
the fossil fuel industry quickly mounted counter campaigns, both in public
relations activities and the traditional buying-off of politicians) was the “greenhouse
effect” but greenhouses, associated with positive things like grapes &
tomatoes didn’t have the desired worrying effect so the terminology in the
1990s shifted to the consequences. “Global
warming” replaced “greenhouse effect” in consciousness-raising but it proved vulnerable
to attacks from industry which claimed every unseasonal cold-spell disproved
the thesis, thus the use of “climate change”.
That has proved resistant to challenge and even in the West the matter
is now being taken seriously, as the consequences of climate change begin to
affect to rich nations of the global north, destructive heat, fires, hurricanes,
floods and tropical diseases no longer ignored as largely they were when those
who suffered were mostly Africans, Arabs, Asians and animals.
Psychiatrists & psychologists find the distinction
between climate and weather a helpful metaphor when explaining personality. The term personality denotes the enduring
pattern of a patient’s life and can thus be thought their individual
climate. The weather which produces that
climate can be good (happy events, a successful marriage, a fulfilling career),
bad (a dull job, habitually sore feet) or severe (cancer, divorce) and in some
cases a patient’s reaction to these event can result is what is diagnosed as a
personality disorder (PD). In the West, psychiatry
is thought one of medicine’s more recent disciplines and in some structural
senses that’s probably true but the understanding of the human personality is ancient. Writing in 45 BC, the Roman statesman &
scholar Cicero (106-43 BC) observed that in men existed “…all kinds of depravity and perversity” and that “There are more disorders of the mind than of
the body and they are of a more dangerous nature for the mind, when disordered…
can neither bear nor endure anything and is under the perpetual influence of
desires”. Cicero went further,
noting the depravities of men were deep seated and either caused or exacerbated
by environment in which men lived and what afflicted one could also poison the
whole for when an entire society “declare
unanimously for what is wrong, then we are altogether overwhelmed”. PD writ large: Each individual an element of
the weather and the body politic the climate.
La Mort de Cicéron (The Death of Cicero (circa 1635), oil on canvas by François Perrier (1590–1650), Bad Homburg, Staatliche.
Within two years of writing those words Cicero would be dead and the circumstances of his execution would provide probably several case studies in PD but he had few reasons to complain; he may have lived by the pen but he ruled by the sword, for centuries remembered fondly by scholars of Antiquity and, perhaps less helpfully for his reputation, of late by Ted Cruz (b 1970; US senator (Republican, Texas) since 2013). Knowledge of PD then was not novel when in 1980 when first it appeared in the third edition (DSM-III) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, organized on a categorical basis with patients classified into one of several distinct personality disorder types. This system was revised in the DSM-IV (1994) and again in the DSM-5 (2013), the latter adopting a hybrid categorical-dimensional approach to PD, a condition it notes affects at least two of a patient’s (1) way of thinking about oneself and others, (2) way of responding emotionally, (3) way of relating to other people and (4) way of controlling one’s behavior. In the DSM-5-TR (2022), the types of PD are listed as:
Antisocial personality disorder: A pattern of disregarding or violating the rights of
others. A person with antisocial
personality disorder may not conform to social norms, may repeatedly lie or
deceive others, or may act impulsively.
Avoidant personality disorder: A pattern of extreme shyness, feelings of inadequacy,
and extreme sensitivity to criticism. Patients
with avoidant personality disorder may be unwilling to get involved with others
unless they are certain of being liked, be preoccupied with being criticized or
rejected, or may view themselves as not being good enough or socially inept.
Borderline personality disorder: A pattern of instability in personal relationships,
intense emotions, poor self-image and impulsivity. A patient with borderline personality disorder
may go to great lengths to avoid being abandoned, have repeated suicide
attempts, display inappropriate intense anger, or have ongoing feelings of
emptiness.
Dependent personality disorder: A pattern of needing to be taken care of and submissive
(clingy the modern term) behavior. Patients with dependent personality disorder
may have difficulty making daily decisions without reassurance from others or
may feel uncomfortable or helpless when alone because of fear of inability to
take care of themselves.
Histrionic personality disorder: A pattern of excessive emotion and attention-seeking. Patients
with HPD may be uncomfortable when they are not the center of attention and may
use physical appearance to draw attention to themselves or have rapidly
shifting or exaggerated emotions.
Narcissistic personality disorder: A pattern of need for admiration and lack of empathy
for others. A patient with NPD may have
a grandiose sense of self-importance, a sense of entitlement, take advantage of
others or lack empathy.
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: A pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfection
and control. A patient with OCPD (distinct
from Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)) may be overly focused on details or
schedules, may work excessively, not allowing time for leisure or friends, or
may be inflexible in their morality and values.
Paranoid personality disorder: A pattern of being suspicious of others and seeing them
as mean or spiteful. Patients with
paranoid personality disorder often assume people will harm or deceive them and
refuse to confide in others or become close to them.
Schizoid personality disorder: Being detached from social relationships and expressing
little emotion. A patient with schizoid
personality disorder typically does not seek close relationships, chooses to be
alone and appears to care little about praise or criticism from others.
Schizotypal personality disorder: A pattern of being very uncomfortable in close
relationships, having distorted thinking and eccentric behavior. A patient with
schizotypal personality disorder may have odd beliefs or odd or peculiar
behavior or speech or may have excessive social anxiety.
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