h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: A Settler's View of Climate Change in North America - A87965897
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - Not Banned in China - U1590784

I had a lot of fun reading this book, and I thought you might enjoy a different kind of climate-change discussion for a change.

Also, there are bears eating Englishmen.

Thank you - that is interesting and I like how you have structured the Entry around the quotes.

The only thing I wasn’t clear about was why grandpa’s anecdote didn’t count as an unreliable primary source.

I like the note that bears are not to be messed with... Reminds me of a ‘joke’ Eddie Izzard told at a show I went to, claiming that people could escape from bears by running a marathon, so anyone who couldn’t run a marathon would be eaten... “Liverpool didn’t like that”...

I guess Grandpa's anecdote would be an unreliable primary source, but I meant the joke to mean, 'That's not the kind of primary source we're talking about.' Tell you what, I'll reword.

I'm not too keen on Mr Izzard's humour myself, but I wouldn't try to outrun a bear in a marathon... For what it's worth, the local experts here tell you to run at right angles to the bear's line of approach, and never to block the path the bear took out of cover, because they'll go back that way.

My best advice would be to get inside, lock the door, and use the device not available in Dr Doddridge's day: the telephone. Call Animal Control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcKAdu-gxok

Thanks for rewording - that's clear now.

Yes, that 'joke' was in very poor taste given that it was inaccurate advice that disparaged the audience... A fascinating experience to see a comedian 'die on stage' metaphorically, but not an experience I'd volunteer to repeat...

Thanks for the video - just shows how big and strong bears are, even though they might look cuddly from a distance...

Yes, there's a reason our distant ancestors were afraid of bears. As one writer put it, the only advantage we have over bears is thumbs. They're bigger than we are, very grumpy, and just as smart.

I would like to see more of those kinds of comedians 'die' on stage, myself. Cull the herd.

I finally managed to read this and found it very interesting! Truly fascinating observations.

Thanks, Tav.

Very interesting and well written. It was hard to believe a temperature change of 0.4–0.7 °C (0.72–1.26 °F) could cause so much death, migration, starvation, riots, and even Typhus outbreaks. I wonder if an external link to the "Year Without a Summer" article in Wiki would add anything or even a footnote listing some of the catastrophic world effects...

Hey, thanks for reading!

The subject of the book is settlement in western Pennsylvania between 1763 and 1783, so I thought I'd quit while I was ahead. There were enormous changes in a short time.

Land use and settlement really changes an ecosystem, and it's very visible.

A great example would be the Clarion River:

During the oil boom here in the 1860s, a vast amount of barge traffic took place. There was also massive deforestation, as lumber was shipped down the river system to Pittsburgh. The Clarion River became Pennsylvania's most polluted waterway by the end of the 19th Century.

Reforestation did a lot to help restore the river. There's a national forest nearby, and a lot of protected land. In 1996, a 51-mile stretch was designated a National Wild and Scenic River. This year, the Clarion River got a postage stamp, because it looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKUcPiGb5to

1816's weather might be worth an entry sometime. The only thing we have is A781715 - which is about the volcanic eruption. Mostly what it says is that the ensuing weather caused Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein.

You're right, it would be better to treat the Tamora aftermath as another topic...one source credits the volcano with the rise of the radical idea, in some European countries, that the State has some obligation to care for its citizens. F

Rain, floods, droughts and early frosts as well as average temperature change, made this the Covid-19 event of the 19th century...

North America had other events to contend with, as well. In 1811 and 1812, the New Madrid Fault shifted and set off powerful earthquakes. If you read David Crockett's memoir (the real one, not the fake ones), he talks about how the aftermath changed the landscape.

When the first one happened, people in Arkansas thought it was the Apocalypse...as usual.

Just reading this again, I wondered what years "the first settlement of the country" related to - 1755-1763?

Doddridge collected anecdotal evidence from his relatives about the time before he was born, but then 1773-1783 was his eyewitness account? I worry it is 'analyses based on review of the scholarly literature'.

Ah, the forewords to the e-book are interesting - seem to say that it is a History made as reliable as possible by being enriched by his own personal experience, and the eyewitnesses he interviewed weren't very helpful

I added a footnote to 'the first settlement', just to make sure it was clear that what Doddridge meant was 'European settlement', and that in western Pennsylvania, that means the mid-18th Century. It's hard to keep track of that 'frontier'.

There are relatively few records from that time and place - George Washington kept a diary when he was in the militia, so we get notes like 'Stayed at so-and-so's, their house is full of bedbugs, won't do that again, stopped to visit Queen Aliquippa, gave her a matchcoat and a bottle of whiskey, she liked the whiskey...'

Only fancier, because Washington, even as a young man, was a big of a snob and a stickler for etiquette.

Anyway, the dearth of records makes any memoir valuable. I really recommend the part where he recalls his childhood - it's an eye-opener about a way of life, as strange to other people then as it is now.

I'm still a bit worried about the 'flavour' of the Entry, though - is it clear enough about which parts of it are from Doddridge's memoir and which are from his research? The introduction gave me the impression that he observed all the events, but then I noticed that the book's title contains a year from before he was born so I was confused.

It's a good point that we want avoid presentism at all costs. Some readers might actually think there were weather statistics available.

See if I managed to allay your concerns by re-reading the section marked 'Meet Joseph Doddridge'. I added a paragraph.

I like the paragraph

Let me test the logic of the Entry (Bluebottle will be pleased it's not just his Entries that get this treatment )

Definition: "Primary sources contain first-hand accounts by eyewitnesses, or are artefacts contemporary to events they relate to... What primary sources aren't is second-hand, hearsay accounts, or analyses based on review of the scholarly literature."

"To write his descriptions, Doddridge drew upon his own memory from the period, as well as information he gathered from friends and neighbours." - so the pieces of information he gathered from friends and neighbours count as first-hand accounts?

"Doddridge claims to have noticed great changes in the Ohio Valley region's weather patterns in his lifetime.

From this history of the system of the weather of our early times, it appears that our seasons have already undergone great and important changes. Our summers are much warmer,"

- is this him noticing changes in his lifetime, or is it him using his experience to reflect on his research?

"one unusual weather event which he doesn't mention in his book" - which was out of scope for the book?

I'm afraid those questions became too many for me. Also, I felt that answering them was leading the entry way far afield from my original intent.

To solve that problem, I have now removed all discussion of primary sources and their works and pomps. I wanted to talk about what this book reports about settlement and climate change. I have now attempted to pull the entry out of that rabbit hole.

Doddridge claimed to have noticed this. I didn't say whether he was right or not. He wasn't a scientist, it was 1824, and he probably figured he could get away with saying that. People around here always say it's okay to plant in early April, and then we do, and then it snows like it did yesterday, so my 'scientific' conclusion is that people are unreliable.

I changed the paragraph about 1816, too. We could leave it out altogether, but I thought it was on theme for the idea of experienced climate change and weather events.

Thanks for steering the Entry away from the rabbit hole - sorry for the I'm keen to see this Entry be as strong as possible. It now clearly aims at the target it goes on to hit, so that is spot on

Just need to clarify the claim again, though, sorry. The quote "From this history of the system of the weather of our early times, it appears that our seasons have already undergone great and important changes." seems to illustrate change that happened outside his lifetime. Is there a quote that illustrates the change that happened within his lifetime, or does the sentence about the Ohio Valley region's weather patterns just need tweaking?

I'm afraid you're not going to be able to go back in time and make Mr Doddridge frame his discussion in a way that suits the 21st Century's ideas of evidence.

Being unable to change him, I changed me. The sentence is changed.

Perfect, thank you

No worries about Doddridge's writing, I was just looking to be clear about what the quote is saying, so that is excellent now