In his work
The Theory of the Four Movements (1808)
the early French utopian socialist Charles Fourier argued that the aurora borealis
– or, as he calls it: “the northern crown” - would melt the ice at the North
Pole which would then be under “full cultivation because of the shining ring of
light”.[1] He went on to say that the sea as a result would
taste differently, like a “kind of lemonade,”[2]
but he is also known for his understanding of afforestation and its influence
on rain and wind.[3] He even pronounced on the idea that “great
ships will … sail through isthmuses like Suez and Panama”, a notion possibly
picked up from another French utopian socialist, Saint-Simon (1760-1825), or from
his followers.[4] Here is just some of what Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
had to say about climate change:
When the human race has extended the
cultivation of the globe beyond sixty degrees north, the planet’s temperature
will be less extreme and generally more pleasant; the rutting will become more
active, the aurora borealis will occur more frequently, will be fixed over the
pole and will broaden out into a ring or crown.
The fluid, which at the moment only emits light, will acquire an
additional characteristic and distribute heat as well as light. …
The influence of the northern crown will be
powerful enough to be felt across a third of the atmosphere; it will be visible
in St Petersburg, Okhotsk and along the entire sixtieth parallel. The heat will increase, will be felt from
there to the pole, which will enjoy the sort of temperatures currently
characteristic of Andalucia or Sicily.
The entire world will by then be under cultivation, bringing about a
rise of five or six degrees, possibly even twelve, in the uncultivated regions
such as Siberia and the north of Canada.
There are two reasons for the climate to become milder in the areas
adjoining the sixtieth parallel: the effect of increased cultivation and the
influence of the crown, which will mean that only temperate winds like the ones
which blow from Barbary across to Genoa and Marseilles, will emanate from the
pole. The conjunction of the two factors
will cause the sixtieth parallel to bask in the temperatures currently enjoyed
by the fully cultivated regions of the forty-fifth such as Bordeaux, Lyons,
Turin and Venice, so that the cities of Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Tobolsk and
Yakutsk, in the coldest latitude on earth, will enjoy temperatures comparable
to those in Gascony or Lombardy, always allowing for the slight variations
caused by the proximity of mountains and the sea. And the coastal regions of Siberia, unviable
today, will enjoy the gentle temperatures of Provence and Naples.[5]
[1] Charles Fourier, The Theory of the Four Movements, ed.
Gareth Stedman Jones and Ian Patterson (Cambridge: Cambridge University press,
2008), p. 33, 34. For some delightful
comment on Fourier’s eccentricities see Dominic Pettman’s essay “Get thee to a
Phalanstery: or, How Fourier Can Still Teach Us to Make Lemonade” in The Public
Domain Review [blog] 2019/05/01.
[2] Fourier, Theory of the Four Movements, p. 50.
[3] Roger Soltau, French Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Russell
& Russell, 1959) p. 151.
[5] Fourier, Theory of the Four Movements, pp. 47, 48.
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