`Climatic Determinism" in its simplest form might be found encapsulated in the well-known rhyme that runs: What is it moulds the life of man?
What makes some black and others tan? How is it that some dress in leaves, While others go in furs, and freeze? The weather.
Baron de Montesquieu, the 18th century French philosopher, elaborated: "People," he said, "are more vigorous in cold climates. Here the action of the heart and the reaction of the extremities of the fibres are better performed. This produces a greater boldness and more courage, more frankness, and less suspicion and less cunning. The inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous; the people in cold countries are, like young men, brave."
Others have suggested that climate variations, and by implication, latitude, may be responsible for much of the conflict, and even many of the wars, that dog progress of the human race. They point out, for example, that the warm climate of the American southern states provided a basis for agricultural work which could be carried out, partly at least, by slaves; this was in sharp climatic contrast to the industrial economy of the north, where slavery was rejected.
The north-south tensions were accommodated for a while in the "Missouri Compromise", an agreement based on a line of latitude at 36 degrees and 30 minutes north, and which marked the northern limit of the territory where slavery was acceptable. But it broke down, as we know, and the result was the American Civil War.
The late Hubert Lamb, the renowned historical climatologist, recognised a consequence of latitude a little closer to home. In the 1590s Scotland was in the grip of the Little Ice Age and the severe climatic conditions resulted in poor harvests, frequent famine and much misery. When King James VI of Scotland became James I of England, it seemed to him a good idea to allow a southward migration of his fellow countrymen to a more benign climatic regime.
The result was the Ulster plantation of 1612. As Lamb put it: "This seems to have been a device of King James VI at one stroke to stabilise the Irish political and religious situation in his favour, and to relieve the impact of harvest failures in Scotland, by taking advantage of the power over Ireland that fell to him on his accession to the throne of England."
The emigration of so many Scots to the richer lands and more sheltered climate of the north-eastern part of Ireland has had an impact on our island that has lasted to the present day.