The Little Ice Age: A World Systems Approach Essays -- Climate Environ

The Little Ice Age A World Systems Approach In todays world, after more than a century of the internal combustion engine and the large-scale burning of fossil fuels, the climate has come to the forefront of public debate. As both sides use conclusion from past climates to support their points, at the heart of this debate is fib. For this reason, as well as for the political implications that the polemics of this issue engenders, objective science and objective historical convey must figure prominently, however objectivity should not be subsumed for conformity. Debate is part of the process that brings science closer to truth. The study of climate is no diverse and the Little Ice Age is an area of study in which there is currently a healthy debate going on. Scholars opinions differ on many aspects of this period, even to the point of disputing its existence. Topics ranging from a definition of the characteristics of the period to its starting date, and its impa cts on serviceman society and history are all part of this debate. Among the multiplicity of issues surround the Little Ice Age, these are chief and, in order to follow a comprehensible thread, will be the focus of this paper. Describing and analyzing the major views relating to these issues (proposed by historians and non-historians alike) should lead a relatively full picture of the debate and shed light on current thought about the topic. The importance of climate to human history is an issue that has interested historians only relatively recently. According to M.J. Ingram, (t)he majority of historians have been content largely to ignore the implications of long-term climatic change on human societies.1 Year-to-y... ...s the Little Ice Age? in T. Mikame (ed.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Little Ice Age Climate. (Tokyo, Department of Geography, Tokyo Metropolitan University 1992) 311 Landsberg 6212 Landsberg 6213 Landsberg 6214 Jean M. Grove. The Little Ice Age. (London and New York, Routledge 1988) 39415 Grove, The Initiation of the Little Ice Age in Regions Round the North Atlantic 6316 Grove The Little Ice Age 26017 Ibid 41618 Ibid 41619 Ibid 39120 Grove The Initiation of the Little Ice Age in Regions Round the North Atlantic 7321 dear 30722 Ibid 30723 Ibid 27824 Ibid 21925 Ibid 21826 Brian Fagan. The Little Ice Age How Climate Made History, 1300-1850. (New York, Basic Books 2000) xviii27 Ibid 5828 Ibid 16529 Ibid 4830 Ibid 59