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What 500-Year-Old Transylvanian Diaries Teach Us About the Climate

Accounts from the 16th century show how extreme climate events affected communities — and could help us prepare for the future.

ByJenny Lehmann
The ‘society’s archive’ – contain reports and observations about local climates in bygone centuries. (Credit: Gaceu et al., 2024.)

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Our planet offers many sources of information on how past climates influenced the environment, such as glaciers, sediments, tree rings, and pollen. But to reconstruct past climate events, researchers in the field of historical climatology go beyond these natural indicators to examine those of society: the records and everyday-life reports of people who lived in those times.

Together, these insights from the past help to make more accurate predictions about how climate change will impact our environment and society today and in the future. A new study published by Romanian researchers in Frontiers in Climate presents just such findings from historical documents dating back to 16th-century Transylvania, shedding light on the socio-economic impacts of extreme climate events from that era.

Read More: Ice Core Represents 1.2 Million Years of Earth's Climate History

Researchers extracted climate-related data from diary and journal entries, chronicles, travel reports, and social records. These meteorological records ...

  • Jenny Lehmann

    Having worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts – ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition – into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When she’s not immersed in a popular science book, you’ll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.

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