The Little Ice Age

1. The Little Ice Age Amber Jimenez, Jeremiah Hinton, Linet Madeja, Marco Messah, Mytet Gumin Dr. Witiw Group #3

2. Background “A time of cooler climate in most parts of the world” • 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

3. Outline of our Presentation • Background • Causes • Sunspots • Milankovitch cycles • Volcanic activity • Thermohaline • Impacts • Agriculture • People • Economy • Environment • Art & Literature • South American Little Ice Age & Ice Vikings • Recommendation • World food supply  THEN VS. NOW • Projections based on trends

4. Sun Spots

5. What is a Sun Spot? • 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…

6. Relevance to the Little Ice Age • Low Sun Spot count during the Little Ice Age • Low Sun Spots means less heat coming from the sun, leads to a cooler earth

7. Future Sun Spot Activity

8. Milankovitch Cycle • 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

9. Eccentricity • More Elliptical would mean extreme weathers between seasons • Less Elliptical means a change in seasons (much like ours currently)

10. Axial Tilt • The tilt determines which area of the earth receives the most amount or the least amount of sunlight

11. Precession • The position of the earth on its elliptical path around the sun • This changes when and how long the seasons last

12. Thermohaline Circulation 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)

13. Ocean Conveyor Belt 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

14. Younger Dryas Event • 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

15. Volcanic Influence • 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

16. Impact on Agriculture • Increased prices on wheat and rye • Peaks in prices due largely because of poor harvest

17. Impact on Agriculturecont… • 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 

18. Impact on the People • 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

19. Positive impacts on the Economy • 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.

20. Negative impacts on the Economy • 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

21. Impact on Environment • High frequency of storms • Large hailstorms • Sand storms due to severe erosion and high winds • Sea flooding • Reshaping of coastal land regions

22. Impact on Art and Literature • Writers and artists were influenced by the climate change

23. South America in the LIA • 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

24. Ice Vikings? • 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

25. World Food Supply Recommendations Now 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

26. Genetically Modified Organisms 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

27. Concerns: public and private sectors • 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

28. Resources • 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.

29. the end questions?