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Posted on 03/22/2008 6:20:58 AM PDT by chessplayer
If you don’t think climate change produces winners as well as losers, consider this: In the 12th and 13th centuries England exported wine to France. Vineyards also flourished in improbable regions like southern Norway and eastern Prussia. A centuries-long spell of mild, predictable weather blessed Western Europe with abundant crops, healthy populations and budget surpluses sufficient to finance projects like Chartres Cathedral.
This is the credit side of a global balance sheet carefully itemized by Brian Fagan in “The Great Warming,” his fascinating account of shifting climatic conditions and their consequences from about A.D. 800 to 1300, often referred to as the Medieval Warm Period. The debit side is appalling: widespread drought, catastrophic rainfall, toppled dynasties, ruined civilizations. Abandoned Maya temples in the Yucatan and the desolation of Angkor Wat, supreme achievement of the Khmer empire, bear witness to climatic change against which royal power and priestly magic proved impotent.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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From the article:
“Acorn trees died, and along with them peoples largely dependent on acorns for food. “
Is an acorn tree anything like an oak tree? < /s>
And when people wanted to place blame for the end of the MWP, they began denouncing the people who were still thriving as “witches”, and destroying them for the sake of the community.
Sound familiar?
A return to a green Sahara desert, as Freeman Dyson points out, will have a net positive effect that might swamp any of the negatives.
First, if the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is allowed to continue, shall we arrive at a climate similar to the climate of six thousand years ago when the Sahara was wet? Second, if we could choose between the climate of today with a dry Sahara and the climate of six thousand years ago with a wet Sahara, should we prefer the climate of today? My second heresy answers yes to the first question and no to the second. It says that the warm climate of six thousand years ago with the wet Sahara is to be preferred, and that increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may help to bring it back.
Yeah, we have some acorn trees right next to those helicopter seed trees and pinecone trees.
The contemporay manifestation of superstition(Anthropogenic Global Warming ™ ) emanates from left-wing political efforts to grow government (in this case supranational government) and deny individual freedom.
We know so little about the planet’s climate as a whole that any statements like that are purely speculation.
That’s it, in a nut shell...
However, the famed “hockey stick” graph, that is the holy grail, of the cult of global warming ignored this Medieval warming period.
“Yeah, we have some acorn trees right next to those helicopter seed trees and pinecone trees.”
And if you look up in the trees, you will see some pointy-headed people who act like nuts trying to spin stories about the sky falling.
Acorn Trees — LOL. Publik skewl educated journalist at work?
Our fluffy white pollen trees are blooming right now!
ping
The bees were going nuts in mine, yesterday.
I wonder if I could accurately call that a bee tree?
Just for info.... Growing up in England we used to refer to oak trees as acorn trees. I think the author comes from England also which may explain this...
OK, I can accept that it’s a “two peoples separated by a common language” sort of thing.
It sounds really, really odd, to an American ear.
People dependent on acorns for food are already living on the edge. Acorns have to be luted (treated with lye) in order to make them edible. Pretty much any climate change, up or down is going to put those people in a worse position.
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