Greater Understanding

During the Medieval period, temperatures were as much as 7 degrees warmer than temperatures today, and the people thrived like at no other time in recorded history. This was the period of the Renaissance when the great cathedrals were built in Europe, and the finest wines came from vineyards in England. Yes, England.

Bear in mind, according to Al Gore and the Global Warming crowd, an increase of even 2 degrees would result in devastation. They seem to ignore the warm period of Medieval times which was much warmer. Note, too, that it is still too cold to grow grapes in England, though it was warm enough in through the 12th century. An interesting note: we have beer and hard liquor today only because of the Little Ice Age. Since the vineyards died, Europeans had to turn to making other alcoholic beverages.

In fact, the famed Piri Reis map used by Columbus and drawn centuries before showed something remarkable - Antarctica, free of ice and accurately showing the land mass beneath. It would seem that during the warm period, there was no ice at the poles. Yet, mankind thrived like never before.

Then in the 13th century, the Little Ice Age (LIA) hit, and cooled the Earth by as much as 4 degrees colder than it is even today. During this period, we now know that an average of 5 large volcanic eruptions occured each century, spewing massive amounts of ash into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of radiation the Earth collected from the sun.

(As an aside, just one such volcano - Krakatoa in 1815 - gave rise to "The Year Without A Summer". Making Mount St Helen look like a firecracker, Krakatoa put forth so much as that nearly the entire Earth was subject to cold temperatures for an entire year. Especially in Europe, people starved because no crops could be grown. And that was just one volcano... )

During the coldest period of the LIA, from 1645-1750, the temperature dropped another 4 degrees. This was caused by an event termed the "Maunder Minimum", affecting our sun periodically. It will happen again. (As a side note, it is thought the famous Stradivarius violins are of such fine tonal quality only because the trees harvested at that time had grown during the coldest period of the Maunder Minimum, creating a denser wood that produces finer depth of tone.)

The resulting cold spell resulted in death and devastation, as over 2 million people died of famine related diseases as crops failed. Soon after, this scenario made the "black death" possible, resulting in over 1/3 of the world's population dying from bubonic plague. Over 50,000 hapless people were burned at the stake as communities would blame witchcraft for the change in climate.

Meanwhile, the Vikings suffered the most, with winters so cold that even livestock could not survive. This forced them to raid countries to the south - England and Ireland. Others, like Leif Erikson, sailed west in search of new resources. History tells us he likely made it to Newfoundland, but most certainly to Greenland.

In the 1500's, Spaniards returning from Peru brought back a new plant - the potato - which survives well in colder climes. It became the noted crop of Ireland, and many people still believe the potato originated there. For decades, Europeans refused to eat potatoes, as they thought it to be the Devil's plant. But as starvation plagued the world, the people eventually accepted the potato, and the tide of famine began to turn.

The Little Ice Age persisted until roughly 1850. At that point, the Earth's temperature once again started to rise, struggling to get back to normal. It takes centuries to recover fully from a mini ice age, and we are still coming out of it, which accounts for rising temperatures. But the average mean temperature of the Earth is still 3-4 degrees colder than it was during the renaissance of the Medieval period.

In nature, nothing ever stagnates. Everything is always in a state a flux. What this means is that the Earth will either get warmer, or it will get colder. But it will not remain as it is. We have seen through history that cooling periods are destructive and devastating to humans, while the warmest periods were the most conducive to survival and growth. Given a choice, I would prefer to see the Earth getting warmer.

What our government should be doing is making preparations for the time when the Earth once again cools, as it surely will one day.

One thing that all scientists understand and agree on, regardless of where they stand on global warming, is that the Earth will experience both warming and cooling periods, over and over again. A warm period will cause events (such as the oceanic "conveyor" shutting down from melting glaciers) that will eventually result in a cool period, which will in turn create new glaciers. This is nature. We cannot stop it. But we can and should learn to deal with it, and do more to prepare.

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