ABSTRACT
In the middle of the Mediterranean sea, historically characterised by large spatial and temporal climate variability, the island of Sicily, a unique ethnic and cultural crossroad for millennia, has not been spared by global warming and environmental change. On the island, remote rural areas suffer today the severe progressive degradation of their biocultural heritage, accompanied by serious marginalisation due to contrasting and simultaneous processes of rural depopulation and land abandonment on the one side and agricultural intensification on the other. This chapter looks at climate and environmental changes as reported by locals in one of these remote areas, the Morello Valley, a fluvial system in central Sicily, and compares local observations with temperature and rainfall data collected by the nearest meteorological stations. Then, inspired by historical ecology, the chapter discusses the results of a longer-term reconstruction of the climatic, environmental, and societal past of this part of Sicily, covering the entire Holocene. Conclusions highlight the importance of taking into account both different spatial and temporal scales when approaching the climate discourse, cultural constructs derived from socio-cultural and historical events, and contemporary and place-based local perceptions.
