A change in attitudes regarding the importance of climatic fluctuations

Abstract

Having taken part in two symposia sponsored by the Geographical Society of Finland (1951 and 1976) on the influence of climatic variations and fluctuations on nature and the activities of man, the author is aware that a certain change in attitudes regarding the significance of the climate has taken place among biogeographers in the period. Nowadays there seems to be a tendency to play down the influence of climatic variations on crops and growth phenomena, for instance. One reason for this may lie in the acceleration of technological advances, accompanied by rapid industrialization and urbanization. The whole land use pattern has changed over large areas in Finland, and new methods for primary organic production (in agriculture, fishing and forestry) have been introduced. No economist today would try to correlate fluctuations in the economy with variations in climate, as was the case only a few decades ago. We also talk more frequently about 'man‑made climate', although opinions regarding the increased carbon dioxide content of' the atmosphere, for instance, are as divergent today as they were 25 years ago. The author stresses the importance of the climatic hazard coefficient and evaluates the complexity of the ecoclimatic triangle. Man's influence on nature seems to have increased so much that it tends to obscure the continuing primary importance of the climate itself.