“The failure of crops was one aspect of the cold spell “
Hmmm, just as I thought, warmer is better, cold is worse. probably why not much life at the poles...
One point of note that’s often neglected is that the “recent ice age” is not actually over. We are still in it.
Geologists define an ice age as when you have 24x7 ice at sea level anywhere.
Within an ice age, there are glaciations where the ice advances significantly.
Wooly mammoth time marked the end of the last glaciation within this ice age, not the end of the ice age itself.
The current ice age has been going on about 4 million years.
Within that time there have been 60 glaciations. That’s 60 times the ice has advance AND retreated across north america.
The link below is a nice reference.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/
Interesting that the North American epicenter for glaciation is thought to be Hudson Bay, while Alaska and western Canada had no major glaciation at all.
You are absolutely correct. A consistently slightly warmer winter weans a third growing season for each year.
Add 1/3 more crop production every year in the US and other countries would mean more food every year.
Alas, the economists have been dismissed by the Eco-terrorists because it does not fit the preconceived notions that any change is bad.
Even when there is constant change.
I used to argue this ad-nausium with liberals on a liberal site. It would drive them nuts when I asked this simple question: Why is global warming bad, beyond it’s affect on those that are on very low-lying ground on the coasts?
It also drove them nuts when I said a warmer planet is a wetter planet. Or when I mentioned that if antarctica warmed up a but there would be more snowfall and the glaciers would rapidly expand, sucking depth from the ocean. And more of Canada and Russia would be able to grow food crops. And the Sahara might get a bit more damp. Etc.
All they “knew” was that man is bad and all of the masses must be tightly controlled and micro-managed by their rulers - down to controlling the very air they breathe.