It’s nothing new. It’s happened before and it’s happening again now. From about the fourteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth, following an abnormally warm period known as the Medieval Climate Optimum, earth experienced what has come to be known as the “Little Ice Age.” Temperatures globally dropped enough to seriously affect climates over most of northern Europe and North America, causing rivers to freeze, crops to fail, and the frigid conditions characteristic of such historical events as Valley Forge and Napoleon’s march toward and retreat from Moscow as chronicled by Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace. In 1816 it was compounded by the eruption of Mount Tambora in what is now Indonesia. A very high volume of sulfur and volcanic ash — 100 times that generated by Mount St. Helens — persisted in the atmosphere, blocking sunlight and causing winter conditions to persist the entire year. It has come to be known as “The Year Without A Summer.”
Some people complain that our pollution of the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels is causing the earth’s temperature to rise. Others point out that this is just a part of the natural cycle, just as the Medieval Climate Optimum and the Little Ice Age demonstrate. I think they’re both right. We are not the cause of global warming, but we are contributing to it. I don’t know how much of this is our doing and how much is just Mother Nature, but there are things we can do to lessen the severity of this climatologic pendulum swing. Let’s start doing them!
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