Fagan, Brian. The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books, 2001. Print.
In The Little Ice Age, Brian Fagan, who an archeology professor at the University of California, argues that a chill was developed by the climate of the Earth, eight centuries ago, and it sent “rippling” effects through Europe over 500 significant years of history. Those events are deeply important because they helped shape the modern world, but are easily ignored in terms of the unparalleled global warming today. However, at the same time, an example is provided by them while looking into the climatic future. Fagan’s persuasive account should definitely alert historians, policy makers, and scientists to look at the causes and likely consequences of the rapidly changing global climate from a fresh perspective.
Regardless of which side readers happen to be on the current debate over Global Warming, and especially if they have reached no conclusion about the issue, Fagan’s book is a must-read. Fortunately, Fagan’s 246-page book is relatively short, and he makes it easier to comprehend the phenomena that changed climatic history between 1300 – 1850 by incorporating well-illustrated charts, graphs and maps. Fagan’s story appears like it was written by a born novelist because of the way he expresses his emotions in a beautiful and imaginative way. However, the message of the story becomes apparent as Fagan demonstrates how basic living conditions and food supplies are affected by climate changes, and how even world events are influenced by them.
In the book, Fagan describes the climate conditions that the world experienced more over the past thousand years or so in order put the current climate conditions of the planet into perspective. He tells the story of a noteworthy period in human history by using modern accounts as well as scientific data brought together from numerous anecdotal data and disciplines drawn from ancient records. Although Fagan has expressed technical terms in the book, he also explains those terms and their relevance to his subject quite excellently. Even readers who are very technically-challenged will easily understand his discussions. Moreover, the book contains abundant charts and graphics so that the readers can see general trends in weather patterns and how local and regional conditions are affected by weather patterns across the globe.
According to Fagan, weather patterns also depend on natural disasters and phenomenon, and that they can be gradually affected by them over a course of many years. For instance, fluctuations in solar radiation, solar wind activity, and presence or lack of sunspots are all a result of the role that the sun plays in our climate. Fagan’s book increasingly emphasizes on detailing ways in which worldwide agriculture is affected by cooling trends and global warming. It also focuses on the contribution of the earlier “Medieval Warming Period” and the Little Ice Age to the rise of diseases and the very extreme starvation as a result of which Europe and various parts of the world were practically destroyed.
Fagan’s book has four different parts. In the first part, Fagan discusses what is referred to as the Medieval Warm Period by historians when the ice withdrew back to the north, which made it possible to explore and settle in the areas near to the North Polar regions like Greenland and North America. Part Two of the book is titled “Cooling Begins,” which contains a description of changes in glaciations, generally cooler temperatures, and water temperatures and the problems that occur in agriculture and trade as a result of these changes.
In Part Three there is a discussion on how the populations of Asia, Europe, and other regions were able to survive food shortages related to extremely cold conditions because of certain changes in agriculture. They were able to develop many innovative farming methods by adapting to the colder climates, and those methods are still practiced all over the world. Finally, Part Four of the book is titled “The Modern Warm Period,” in which the readers are shown how a runaway Greenhouse Effect is underway most likely due to deforestation, population growth, and other potentially catastrophic conditions.
When reading Fagan’s book, readers should particularly pay attention to how conditions during the different periods of both the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age have been described. As pointed out in the book, at the ends of both periods there were extremely unsettling weather conditions, and from what Fagan describes and quotes from modern records, it seems that those weather conditions sound remarkably similar to the ones currently being experienced all over the world.
The information contained in the book is both frightening and reassuring. It is very likely that what is being experienced by the earth now are actually the climatological upheavals behind the changes from Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. As shown by Fagan, we cannot accurately judge whether that is the case or not because we do not yet have adequate understanding about the causes of global warming. Despite being a bit dated, Brian Fagan’s “The Little Ice Age,” is an informative and splendid read with a compelling narrative weaved out of complex and extensive data.
Work Cited
Fagan, Brian. The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books, 2001. Print.
