What lessons from history's climate shifts?

BBC ^ | October 6, 2011 | Richard Black

[decimon]

Earlier this week, the journal Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a study on climate change that is at the same time scary, comforting, insightful and a statement of the obvious.

To be more accurate, I should probably say that the paper is capable of being interpreted in all of those ways, rather than risk implying that the authors intended to do more than run the numbers and see what popped up.

What they're talking about is climate change in Europe, specifically between 1500 and 1800 AD - a period that encompasses the so-called Little Ice Age.

It also encompasses a period that historian Eric Hobsbawm dubbed the General Crisis, when Europe was beset by a number of wars, inflation, migration and population decline.

So did the cold cause the chaos?

The method employed by David Zhang from the University of Hong Kong and his colleagues was basically to look for a chain of causality in changes in things such as temperature, crop yield, migration, famine, and war.

On the one hand, their top line conclusion, contained in the paper's title, brooks little argument: "Climate change is the ultimate cause of large-scale human crisis".

[familyop]

"Are yaks like buffalo, needing 4 layers of fencing? Will you need a large animal vet with an interest in exotics? Not sure I would want to try milking a yak! ;)"

I'm all study and no experience with them so far, but cattle fences are good enough. Five-wire with stays should do nicely. They'll need vaccinations and hoof trimming, so corral, stanchions, roping, etc. will be in order. As for a vet, some people pay them for advice once in a while (my experience). Others pay them to do everything. Knowing a good agricultural vet in case of evidence exam being needed is a good idea for some ranchers/farmers in certain situations (e.g., anyone with a corrupt/criminal neighbor). The alternative to corralling and restraining equipment is taming, which is probably much more time consuming than with cattle and could leave them more unsecured (if possible rustling problems). They'll consume a little more than half of the hay that cattle require, and supplements would probably help.

"We have similar winter weather here in Wisconsin. Our vet friend really likes the Highlands. He is the kind of guy who would be interested in learning about something like a yak, though."

I've found some of the individual farmer/rancher websites to be the most accurate for information. Some of the large associations receive input from folks with interests other than farming/ranching.