Redefining historical climatology in the Anthropocene

Historical climatology is commonly defined as the study of past climates based on 'documentary evidence' before the establishment of modern networks of meteorological measurement, which excludes the last two centuries of recent global warming. This article reviews historical climatology with regard to the Anthropocene. In the Anthropocene the dynamics of climate change are essentially anthropogenic. The term 'sociosphere' will be advocated as a terminological improvement over existing attempts to define the place of human activities in Earth System Analysis. Theoretical and empirical advances in the study of social ecodynamics are called for. Historical climatology has a capacity to contribute making such advances, but a redefinition is inevitable for this potential to be realized: (1) historical climatology needs to expand temporally into the 19th and 20th centuries; and (2) it has yet to adjust to an important conceptual transition in climatology: from a descriptive (meteorological) concept of climate to climate dynamics.