Amber Jimenez, Jeremiah Hinton, Linet Madeja, Marco
Messah, Mytet Gumin
Dr. Witiw
Group #3
•Colder winters in
Europe and North
America
•Average global
temperatures were
about 2-3 degrees
Fahrenheit cooler
•No agreement on
beginning date of
Little Ice Age
•Medieval Warming
Period
1.
2.
Background
Causes
1.
2.
3.
4.
3.
Impacts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
4.
5.
Sunspots
Milankovitch cycles
Volcanic activity
Thermohaline
Agriculture
People
Economy
Environment
Art & Literature
South American Little Ice Age & Ice Vikings
Recommendation
1.
2.
World food supply  THEN VS. NOW
Projections based on trends
 Dark regions that appear on the surface of the
sun
 It is dark because the temperature is cooler than
its surroundings (3,700 degrees C vs. 5,500
degrees C)
 Not really dark…
 Low Sun Spot count during the Little Ice Age
 Low Sun Spots means less heat coming from the
sun, leads to a cooler earth
 Eccentricity
 Shape of earth’s orbit around the sun
 Axial Tilt
 The inclination of the earth’s axis in
relation to the plane of orbit around the
sun
 Precession
 The changes in the orbital ellipse causes
changes in the solstices
 More Elliptical would mean extreme
weathers between seasons
 Less Elliptical means a change in
seasons (much like ours currently)
 The tilt determines
which area of the earth
receives the most
amount or the least
amount of sunlight
 The position of the earth on its
elliptical path around the sun
 This changes when and how long
the seasons last
Definition:
The global ocean
circulation that
is driven by
geographic
differences in
the density of
sea water, which
are controlled
by temperature
(thermal) and
salinity (haline)
Ocean Conveyor Belt
Warm, salty
water from the
Tropics gets
carried
through to the
North Atlantic
Once there, it
begins to cool,
releasing heat
to the
atmosphere &
warming the
North Atlantic
The water
becomes
cooler, more
dense & sinks
to the deep
ocean
Once in the deep
ocean, water flows
south through the
ocean basins, is driven
up by wind driven up
near the Antartic and
rejoins near surface
currents to begin the
process again.
Past changes in
thermohaline
circulation have
occurred during
periods of relatively
rapid climate change,
such as transitions in
and out of glaciations,
like the Little Ice Age
 Discussion that meltwater
floods reduced the salinity
and density of the surface
ocean in the North Atlantic,
causing a reduction in the
ocean's thermohaline
circulation and climate
changes around the world
 Eventually, as the meltwater
flux subsided, the
thermohaline circulation
strengthened again and
climate recovered
Freshwater
added to the
North
Atlantic
Continental
Ice Sheets
Melting
Meltwater floods
reduced salinity &
density of the
surface of the
ocean
 Mount Pinatubo 1991
-Sent fine ash and gases high
into the stratosphere
-Aerosol Effect, reflects
incoming solar heat back into
space, increasing the earth's
reflective power (albedos)
-Higher albedos coincide with
lower temperatures
 Tambora 1815
-produced so much gases and
particles that it lowered
earth's temperature enough
that it robbed Europe of a
summer the following year
High Volcanic
Activity
during Little
Ice Age
demonstrate a
lowering of
temperatures,
cooling off the
climate.
 Increased prices
on wheat and rye
 Peaks in prices due
largely because of
poor harvest
 Fusarium nivale
 Parasite
 Devasted crops
 Animals had nothing to eat
causing a huge decline in
livestock
 Led to famine and dearth
 Famine: a severe shortage of food
resulting in starvation and death
 Dearth: an insufficient quantity or
number
 Dearth, famine, and poor nutrition killed millions of
people
 Vikings in Greenland; Iceland
 St. Anthony's Fire Illness
 Convulsions, hallucinations, gangrenous
rotting of the extremities, and even death
 Malaria
 Mala aria ‘bad air’
 Became very hostile
 Cattle raids, men enlisted into war etc.
 Witchcraft/ Witch hunts
 Scapegoats to blame for their suffering
 Fertile fishing grounds of Newfoundland Banks were thought to
have been found by fisherman in the late 1400's
 movement of colder waters from the north
 English fisherman benefited by the southern movement of
herring off of Norway.
 Increase in deep-sea fishing helped to build the marine
population and strength of the country
 The failure of crops in Norway  growth of merchant shipping.
 Coastal farmers whose crops failed turned to selling their timber
and to constructing ships in order to transport the timbers
themselves.
 Increased grain prices
 Lower wine production
 Farmsteads destroyed  less
tax revenues collected due to
decreased value of the
properties
 Cod fishing decreased
 Scottish fisherman
 Sudden end to mining
operations
 Hohe Tauern mountains
of the Austrian Alps
 High frequency of
storms
 Large hailstorms
 Sand storms due to
severe erosion and
high winds
 Sea flooding
 Reshaping of coastal
land regions
 Writers and artists were influenced by the
climate change
 Explorers over the centuries have noted changes to the
San Rafael Glacier in South America
 Antonio De Vea, Hans Steffan Hoffman, the a BBC
report’s data correspond with timeline of the LIA
 The retreat and advance
of the San Rafael Glacier
corresponds with the
conditions proposed by
the LIA
 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle famously notes the
first appearance of Viking raiders on the shores
of Lindisfarne in AD 793
 Tax reports indicate that the population of
Iceland fell from about 77,500 in 1095, to around
38,000 in the 1780's
Now
Asia plants more than
50% of the developing
world’s wheat crop
50% of the
developing
world’s Maize is
produced in Asia,
some
Eastern/Southern
African parts too
Asia produces &
consumes 90%
rice grown
Investment in world food
security, to food safety
and food quality, and to
sustainability, ensuring
they remain available to
the public at large
Investment in Irrigation
Systems throughout
Africa, Latin America
Considerations
-The availability of varieties of
seed with tolerances for
extremes of cold or heat,
wetness or drought
-Development of a greater
variety of crops that focus on
virus resistance, quality and
tolerance to abiotic stresses.
Developing countries should be
invested in (Latin American,
African) to increase crop
representation and
enhancement of crop traits
About 16% of the
total area planted
to these crops is
now under GM
varieties, and two
traits - insect
resistance and
herbicide
tolerance dominate.
Total area
cultivated with
GMO crops stands
at about 44.2
million hectares,
up from 11 million
hectares just three
years ago.
About 75% of this area is
in industrialized
countries. Substantial
plantings largely
concern four crops:
soybean, maize, cotton
and canola.
 Danger that the scale of
the investment may lead
to selective
concentration on species
 “Hard" intellectual
property rights over
seeds & planting
material, the tools of
genetic engineering.
 Patents on crops
 LIA in South America:
Historical records of San Rafael glacier advances (North Patagonian Icefield): another clue to 'Little
Ice Age‘ timing in southern Chile?. A. Araneda, F. Torrejon, M. Aguayo, L. Torres, F. Cruces, M.
Cisternas, and R. Urrutia (2007) The Holocene 17, 987-998
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3662975.stm
http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/vrp/villalba.html
 LIA in Greenland/Vikings
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/decline_of_vikings_iceland.html
Lamb, H.H., 1995, Climate, History and the Modern World, Methuen, London.
the end
questions?