By S. Fred Singer
To cool the current overheated
concern about global warming one must study the past. History books
tell us about a major climate catastrophe that ushered in the Dark
Ages, a cooling of the climate between 400 and 600 AD. As reported by The
Times of London, this was the big story in a recent meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Prof. Michael
Baillie of Queens University (Belfast) School of Archeology and Paleo-Ecology
told of studies that verify the major cooling, based on tree ring
data. Independent records from ocean sediments by scientists from the
renowned Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts also
show an unusual cooling during the same period in the North Atlantic
region. This suggests that the cold spell may have covered the entire
Northern Hemisphere or even the globe.
The impact of the cooling was fearful.
Frosts devastated agriculture and made a malnourished population a ready
target for disease. The bubonic plague killed millions, up to 10,000 a
day. The Emperor Justinian caught the disease, forcing him to abandon his
plans for a new Roman invasion of Gaul and Britannia. Pope Gregory the
Great in Rome could not quell the mayhem, as the Ostrogoths seized Italy
and the Persians captured Antioch, delivering decisive blows to the empire
of Byzantium .
There was turmoil elsewhere also. In
post-Roman Britain, King Arthur was killed in battle. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle states that the sun was eclipsed and the stars appeared late in
the morning. The cold cycle caused famine in Ireland where Celtic
Christianity opened its great schism with Rome over when to celebrate
Easter. The Celtic church lost.
What caused this climate catastrophe?
Opinions are divided. Some documents refer to huge earthquakes that killed
a quarter million people in the Eastern Mediterranean and might have
released volcanic eruptions that cooled the climate.
Another hypothesis posits that a giant
comet hit the earth, causing violent explosions that put dust into the
atmosphere and produced a dramatic cooling. This view is supported by Dr.
Baillie, based on the work of Oxford astrophysicist Victor Clube. His
calculations show a major commentary bombardment between 400 and 600 AD by
meteor showers from the breakup of the comet Biela. Dr. Bailey also cited
the death of King Arthur, at about 540 AD, which Celtic myths link to fire
from the sky. But whether these stories support the comet theory of
cooling is hard to say.
One thing is certain though: The climate
was simply awful and its cooling effects on humanity were disastrous,
causing starvation and disease. After 600 AD, the climate recovered,
reaching a warming peak around 1000 AD when Vikings were able to practice
agriculture in Greenland and establish settlements on the North American
continent. Prosperity returned to Europe; great cathedrals were started;
and thousands were released from agriculture to join in the
Crusades.
History's lesson is plain to see: We
should be fearing a colder climate not a warmer one.
S. Fred Singer is Professor Emeritus of
Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, and former Director of the
US Weather Satellite Service. He
is
president of the Arlington, VA-based Science & Environmental Policy
Project <www.sepp.org>
