For the past month or so I've been reading a book I started on
the way to Greece about the climactic shifts of the past
millennium. It's Brian Fagan's The Little Ice Age, which
depicts Europe as a victim of the vagaries of the North
Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and perhaps a variation in solar
irradiation. It's not hard to see how famine due to climate
caused political unrest. More interesting is the cataloging
of the slow abandonment of agricultural lands as they became
unsustainable in a colder world.
Most of the book is awesome and well researched, but the last
chapter regarding the current global warming and it's
anthropogenic drivers is base political bullshit. You'd think
someone writing a book about the adaptability of humanity in
face of climactic change would be rooting for us, but sadly
one finds him rooting for governments that will squandor
resources until the window closes. (Referring here to the
window during which the resources of this planet can be
harvested is quantity great enough to propel our species to
other habitable worlds).
|