Ice Age small pedestal. Little Ice Age

Why are grapes no longer grown in Scotland and why is ice-covered Greenland called the “green” island? What's happened Little Ice Age, and what awaits us when it comes?

Are we heading for a new ice age?

According to scientists, the winter of 2017 was the beginning of global cooling, which was called Little Ice Age. Severe cooling will be felt in 2020, and possibly earlier.

Researchers attribute this to a decrease in flares and sunspots, which will significantly reduce its activity. The peak of weakening activity will occur in 2030, it will decrease by 60%, and this will last about 10 years. And only after 2040 the situation will change towards warming.

More optimistic scientists argue that the Earth itself regulates its temperature, for example, with a decrease in the activity of the Sun, the formation of clouds changes, and there is more heat. But in general, climate change is already being felt.

Little Ice Ages - how it happened

Little Ice Ages have happened more than once in history - for example, from 1310 to 1370, from 1645 to 1715. Scientists are still arguing about different versions of cold snaps that occurred in Europe, Russia and America.

One of the versions is a significant decrease in the number of sunspots, discovered by the English astronomer Maunder while studying archival materials of those times. This phenomenon was called the Maunder minimum.

The sharp cooling is also associated with increased activity of volcanoes, the eruptions of which several centuries ago reduced the amount of sunlight.

In addition, one of the main versions is a slowdown in the Gulf Stream. It is known that in 1300, the Gulf Stream slowed down, and it became much colder in Europe and Atlantic North America.

It was during the Little Ice Ages that green Greenland turned into a glacier and the Vikings abandoned it. The southern seas froze, snow fell in southern Italy, vineyards disappeared in Scotland, and sleigh rides were possible on the ice of the Danube. The average temperature dropped by 1-2 degrees Celsius. These times significantly changed Western civilization.

How the climate is changing now

Now, according to some scientists, Little Ice Age will come again. In addition to the disappearance of sunspots, changes also affected the Gulf Stream. The warm current makes living in Europe quite comfortable from a climatic point of view (increasing the possible temperature by 8-10 degrees). But the Gulf Stream is now also slowing down, while the cold Labrador Current is gaining power.

Interruptions of the warm current and heat loss in the Gulf Stream change air flows that stagnate in the atmosphere - this is what caused, for example, the abnormal heat of 2010 in the European part of Russia.

In turn, the number of hurricanes in the United States has increased, causing billions in losses. Since the beginning of the 21st century, North America has already experienced several deadly hurricanes, starting with Katrina in 2005.

Little Ice Age in Russia

At the peak of the Little Ice Ages in Russia it was very cold even in summer - already in July-August the first frosts hit, and at the beginning of autumn snowfalls began. According to a number of scientists, it was the cold and the subsequent crop failure that led to the beginning of the Time of Troubles.

The ice age threatens Russia less than Europe and America - the average temperature will even rise for now.

But in general, all scientists agree that with today's development of technology, the Little Ice Age is not so dangerous for humanity.

What astrologers say

The weakening of solar activity will lead to the fact that the Sun will have less influence on other planets. In addition, the lunar influence will increase in the Moon-Sun system. Therefore, the period of decline of the Sun threatens a violation of the harmony of yin-yang and the predominance of yin (destructive) energy, which will lead to a decrease in the creative principle.

In its influence on people, this can manifest itself in a large number of dishonest actions, the elevation of unworthy people, confrontations, and attempts to achieve one’s own by low methods.

A lack of solar energy will lead to an exacerbation of depressive conditions. Astrologers advise using images of the sun as amulets on days of decreased solar activity - various symbols of the sun, charged with positive, solar energy.

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Russian scientists promise that an ice age will begin in the world in 2014. Vladimir Bashkin, head of the Gazprom VNIIGAZ laboratory, and Rauf Galiullin, an employee of the Institute of Fundamental Problems of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, argue that there will be no global warming. According to scientists, warm winters are a consequence of the cyclical activity of the sun and cyclical climate change. This warming has continued from the 18th century to the present, and from next year the Earth will begin to cool again.

The Little Ice Age will come gradually and will last at least two centuries. The temperature decline will reach its peak by the middle of the 21st century.

At the same time, scientists say that the anthropogenic factor - human influence on the environment - does not play as big a role in climate change as is commonly thought. It’s a matter of marketing, Bashkin and Galiullin believe, and the promise of cold weather every year is just a way to increase the price of fuel.

Pandora's Box - The Little Ice Age in the 21st century.

In the next 20-50 years we are threatened with a Little Ice Age, because it has happened before and should come again. Researchers believe that the onset of the Little Ice Age was associated with a slowdown in the Gulf Stream around 1300. In the 1310s, Western Europe, judging by the chronicles, experienced a real environmental catastrophe. According to the French Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, the traditionally warm summer of 1311 was followed by four gloomy and rainy summers of 1312-1315. Heavy rains and unusually harsh winters led to the destruction of several crops and the freezing of orchards in England, Scotland, northern France and Germany. In Scotland and northern Germany, viticulture and wine production ceased. Winter frosts began to affect even northern Italy. F. Petrarch and G. Boccaccio recorded that in the 14th century. snow often fell in Italy. A direct consequence of the first phase of the MLP was the massive famine of the first half of the 14th century. Indirect - the crisis of the feudal economy, the resumption of corvée and major peasant uprisings in Western Europe. In the Russian lands, the first phase of the MLP made itself felt in the form of a series of “rainy years” in the 14th century.

From about the 1370s, temperatures in Western Europe began to slowly rise, and widespread famine and crop failures ceased. However, cold, rainy summers were common throughout the 15th century. In winter, snowfalls and frosts were often observed in southern Europe. Relative warming began only in the 1440s, and it immediately led to the rise of agriculture. However, the temperatures of the previous climatic optimum were not restored. For Western and Central Europe, snowy winters became common, and the period of “golden autumn” began in September.

What influences the climate so much? It turns out the sun! Back in the 18th century, when sufficiently powerful telescopes appeared, astronomers noticed that the number of sunspots increases and decreases with a certain periodicity. This phenomenon was called solar activity cycles. They also found out their average duration - 11 years (Schwabe-Wolf cycle). Later, longer cycles were discovered: a 22-year cycle (Hale cycle), associated with a change in the polarity of the solar magnetic field, a “secular” Gleissberg cycle lasting about 80-90 years, as well as a 200-year cycle (Suess cycle). It is believed that there is even a cycle lasting 2400 years.

“The fact is that longer cycles, for example secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the emergence of grandiose minima,” said Yuri Nagovitsyn. Modern science knows several of these: the Wolf minimum (early 14th century), Sperer minimum (second half of the 15th century) and Maunder minimum (second half of the 17th century).

Scientists have suggested that the end of the 23rd cycle most likely coincides with the end of the secular cycle of solar activity, the maximum of which was in 1957. This, in particular, is evidenced by the curve of relative Wolf numbers, which has approached its minimum level in recent years. Indirect evidence of superposition is the procrastination of the 11-year-old. Having compared the facts, scientists realized that, apparently, a combination of factors indicates an approaching grandiose minimum. Therefore, if in the 23rd cycle the solar activity was about 120 relative Wolf numbers, then in the next it should be about 90-100 units, astrophysicists suggest. Further activity will decrease even more.

The fact is that longer cycles, for example secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the emergence of grandiose minima, the last of which occurred in the 14th century. What consequences await the Earth? It turns out that it was during the grandiose maxima and minima of solar activity that large temperature anomalies were observed on Earth.

Climate is a very complex thing, it is very difficult to trace all its changes, especially on a global scale, but as scientists suggest, the greenhouse gases brought by human activity slightly slowed down the advent of the Little Ice Age, and besides, the world ocean, having accumulated some of the heat over the past decades, also delays the process the beginning of the Little Ice Age, giving up its warmth a little at a time. As it turned out later, the vegetation on our planet absorbs excess carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) well. The main influence on the climate of our planet is still exerted by the Sun, and we cannot do anything about it.

Of course, nothing catastrophic will happen, but part of the northern regions of Russia may become completely unsuitable for life, and oil production in the north of the Russian Federation may cease altogether.

In my opinion, the start of a decline in global temperatures can already be expected in 2014-2015. In 2035-2045, solar luminosity will reach a minimum, and after this, with a lag of 15-20 years, another climate minimum will occur - a deep cooling of the Earth's climate.

News about the end of the world » The Earth is facing a new ice age.

Scientists predict a decrease in solar activity that may occur over the next 10 years. The consequence of this could be a repetition of the so-called “Little Ice Age” that happened in the 17th century, writes the Times.

Scientists predict that the frequency of sunspots may decrease significantly in the coming years.

The cycle of formation of new sunspots that influence the Earth's temperature is 11 years. However, employees of the American National Observatory suggest that the next cycle may be very late or may not happen at all. According to the most optimistic forecasts, they say, the new cycle could begin in 2020-21.

Scientists are wondering whether changes in solar activity will lead to a second "Maunder Minimum" - a period of sharp decline in solar activity that lasted 70 years, from 1645 to 1715. During this time, also known as the "Little Ice Age", the River Thames was covered with almost 30 meters of ice, on which horse-drawn carriages successfully traveled from Whitehall to London Bridge.

According to researchers, the decline in solar activity could lead to an average global temperature drop of 0.5 degrees. However, most scientists are confident that it is too early to sound the alarm. During the “Little Ice Age” in the 17th century, the air temperature dropped noticeably only in northwestern Europe, and even then by only 4 degrees. Throughout the rest of the planet, temperatures dropped by just half a degree.

The Second Coming of the Little Ice Age

In historical times, Europe has already experienced a long-term anomalous cold spell once.

The abnormally severe frosts that prevailed in Europe at the end of January almost led to a full-scale collapse in many Western countries. Due to heavy snowfalls, many highways were blocked, power supplies were interrupted, and aircraft reception at airports was canceled. Due to frosts (in the Czech Republic, for example, reaching -39 degrees), classes in schools, exhibitions and sports matches are canceled. In the first 10 days of extreme frosts in Europe alone, more than 600 people died from them.

For the first time in many years, the Danube froze from the Black Sea to Vienna (the ice there reaches 15 cm thick), blocking hundreds of ships. To prevent the Seine from freezing in Paris, an icebreaker that had been idle for a long time was launched. Ice has frozen the canals of Venice and the Netherlands; in Amsterdam, skaters and cyclists ride along its frozen waterways.

The situation for modern Europe is extraordinary. However, by looking at famous works of European art from the 16th to 18th centuries or in the weather records of those years, we learn that the freezing of canals in the Netherlands, the Venetian lagoon or the Seine was a fairly common occurrence for that time. The end of the 18th century was especially extreme.

Thus, the year 1788 was remembered by Russia and Ukraine as the “great winter,” accompanied throughout their European part by “extreme cold, storms and snow.” In Western Europe in December of the same year, a record temperature of -37 degrees was recorded. The birds froze in flight. The Venetian lagoon froze, and the townspeople skated along its entire length. In 1795, ice bound the coast of the Netherlands with such force that an entire military squadron was captured in it, which was then surrounded by a French cavalry squadron across the ice from land. In Paris that year, frosts reached -23 degrees.

Paleoclimatologists (historians who study climate change) call the period from the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century the “Little Ice Age” (A.S. Monin, Yu.A. Shishkov “Climate History.” Leningrad, 1979) or the “Little Ice Age” era" (E. Le Roy Ladurie, "History of climate since 1000." Leningrad, 1971). They note that during that period there were not isolated cold winters, but a general decrease in temperature on Earth.

Le Roy Ladurie analyzed data on the expansion of glaciers in the Alps and Carpathians. He points to the following fact: the gold mines in the High Tatras, developed in the mid-15th century, were covered with ice 20 m thick in 1570; in the 18th century, the ice thickness there was already 100 m. By 1875, despite the widespread retreat that took place throughout the 19th century and the melting of glaciers, the thickness of the glacier above the medieval mines in the High Tatras was still 40 m. At the same time, as the French paleoclimatologist notes, the advance of glaciers began in the French Alps. In the commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, in the Savoy mountains, "the advance of glaciers definitely began in 1570–1580."

Le Roy Ladurie points out similar examples with exact dates in other places in the Alps. In Switzerland, by 1588 there is evidence of the expansion of a glacier in the Swiss Grindenwald, and in 1589 a glacier descending from the mountains blocked the valley of the Saas River. In the Pennine Alps (in Italy near the border with Switzerland and France) a noticeable expansion of glaciers was also noted in 1594–1595. “In the eastern Alps (Tirol and others), glaciers advance equally and simultaneously. The first information about this dates back to 1595, writes Le Roy Ladurie. And he adds: “In 1599–1600, the curve of glacial development reached its peak for the entire Alpine region.” Since that time, written sources have contained endless complaints from residents of mountain villages that glaciers are burying their pastures, fields and houses, thus wiping out entire settlements from the face of the earth. In the 17th century, the expansion of glaciers continued.

The expansion of glaciers in Iceland, starting from the end of the 16th century and throughout the 17th century, advancing on populated areas, is consistent with this. As a result, Le Roy Ladurie states, “Scandinavian glaciers, synchronously with Alpine glaciers and glaciers in other areas of the world, have been experiencing the first, well-defined historical maximum since 1695,” and “in subsequent years they will begin to advance again.” This continued until the middle of the 18th century.

The thickness of the glaciers of those centuries can truly be called historical. The graph of changes in the thickness of glaciers in Iceland and Norway over the past 10 thousand years, published in the book “Climate History” by Andrei Monin and Yuri Shishkov, clearly shows how the thickness of glaciers, which began to grow around 1600, by 1750 reached the level at which the glaciers remained in Europe in the period 8–5 thousand years BC.

Is it any wonder that contemporaries have recorded, since the 1560s in Europe, extraordinary cold winters, which were accompanied by the freezing of large rivers and reservoirs, over and over again? These cases are indicated, for example, in the book by Evgeny Borisenkov and Vasily Pasetsky “The Thousand-Year Chronicle of Unusual Natural Phenomena” (M., 1988). In December 1564, the powerful Scheldt in the Netherlands completely froze and remained under ice until the end of the first week of January 1565. The same cold winter was repeated in 1594/95, when the Scheldt and Rhine froze. The seas and straits froze: in 1580 and 1658 - the Baltic Sea, in 1620/21 - the Black Sea and the Bosporus Strait, in 1659 - the Great Belt Strait between the Baltic and North Seas (the minimum width of which is 3.7 km).

The end of the 17th century, when, according to Le Roy Ladurie, the thickness of glaciers in Europe reached a historical maximum, was marked by crop failures due to prolonged severe frosts. As noted in the book by Borisenkov and Pasetsky: “The years 1692–1699 were marked in Western Europe by continuous crop failures and famines.”

One of the worst winters of the Little Ice Age occurred in January–February 1709. Reading the description of those historical events, you involuntarily try them on for modern ones: “An extraordinary cold, the likes of which neither our grandfathers nor our great-grandfathers could remember... the inhabitants of Russia and Western Europe died. Birds, flying through the air, froze. In Europe as a whole, many thousands of people, animals and trees died. In the vicinity of Venice, the Adriatic Sea was covered with standing ice. The coastal waters of England are covered in ice. The Seine and Thames are frozen. The ice on the Meuse River reached 1.5 m. The frosts were equally great in the eastern part of North America.” The winters of 1739/40, 1787/88 and 1788/89 were no less severe.

In the 19th century, the Little Ice Age gave way to warming and harsh winters became a thing of the past. Is he returning now?

The Little Ice Age showed that even a slight change in temperature on the planet can lead to such global changes that they will affect the entire world history.

It's not all the Gulf Stream's fault

The factors that caused the Little Ice Age are still debated. The main reason voiced by most sources is the slowdown of the Gulf Stream, which is the main “supplier” of heat to Europe. However, the Gulf Stream alone does not explain everything.

According to a 1976 study published by John Eddy, there was reduced solar activity during the Little Ice Age. Also, scientists (in particular, Thomas Crowley) associate the sharp cooling that began in the 14th century with, on the contrary, increased volcanic activity. Massive eruptions release aerosols into the atmosphere, which scatter sunlight. This can lead to global dimming and cooling.
An important factor that turned the Little Ice Age into a cataclysm of global significance was that the processes that began with its beginning (a decrease in agricultural activity, an increase in forest area) led to the fact that carbon dioxide contained in the atmosphere began to be absorbed by the biosphere. This process also contributed to a decrease in temperature. In very simple terms, the larger the forest, the colder it is.
Thus, to claim that the Gulf Stream was the only culprit of the Little Ice Age is at least naive.

The beginning of the Little Ice Age, which began in 1312, led to an entire environmental catastrophe. Climate change has primarily had a disastrous effect on crop yields. Until the early 14th century, cereals were the mainstay of the diet in Europe, but prolonged rains and harsh winters showed how dangerous it was to rely on these crops. According to the French Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, the traditionally warm summer of 1311 was followed by four gloomy and rainy summers of 1312-1315. Until 1312, England and Scotland were among the most promising suppliers of wine and competed with France, but climate change made adjustments: viticulture in northern Germany, England and Scotland ceased. Frosts even affected northern Italy, as both Dante and Petrarch wrote about.

The situation with crop failures worsened year by year. In France alone, one and a half million people died in a year and a half. The northern countries suffered the most; almost all of the Danish settlements in Greenland died out of famine, and half of Ireland was wiped out by famine.

According to experts, during the period from 1315 to 1317, almost a quarter of the population died out in Europe due to the Great Famine. The lands south of the Alps and east of Poland were least affected. There the land continued to be fertile.

Hunger was a constant companion of people throughout the Little Ice Age. During the period from 1371 to 1791, there were 111 famine years in France alone. In 1601 alone, half a million people died in Russia from famine due to crop failures.

Famine was not the only tragic consequence of the Little Ice Age. Global climate change has affected not only Europe, but also Asia. In the 20s of the 14th century, after a long drought and an invasion of locusts, heavy rains began there, accompanied by hurricane winds. These cataclysms led to the beginning of a mass migration of rodents and rats - carriers of infections, which began to settle closer to people in search of food. At the same time, a plague epidemic broke out in the Gobi Desert. Meanwhile, the rats continued their migration, covering more and more territory. From India and China, rats went north; already in 1346 they were in Europe, where the “Black Death” mowed down entire cities.
Foci of plague also broke out in parallel with Asia and in southern Europe. The high mortality rate of the population from the Black Death only intensified the consequences of the Little Ice Age. People died, agricultural activity declined, forest area increased, CO2 was absorbed into the biosphere, and temperatures dropped.

Development of sciences

The Little Ice Age affected all areas of life. So, it was during this period that alchemy became in favor with the powers that be. Eschatological premonitions, which were understandably formed from increased mortality and natural disasters, aroused interest in this amazing science. In addition, astrology gained particular relevance; even such recognized astronomers as Kepler and Tycho Brahe studied it. The latter, in the fall of 1572, discovered a supernova in the sky, which completely destroyed all ideas about astronomy. Previous settings turned out to be irrelevant. If we consider that educated people in the Middle Ages balanced their actions - from harvesting to household duties with astronomical calculations, one can understand how important Brahe's discovery was. The old world no longer existed; the Little Ice Age turned people's ideas about the universe upside down.
People, previously confident that the climate is always unchanged, began to become interested in the patterns that lead to one or another change in the weather. It was the Little Ice Age that became the time when meteorology began to actively develop.

Art

Epidemics, famine, and mass mortality that marked the Little Ice Age could not but influence art. The most striking reflection of how the visual arts responded to all these events was mannerism. Its high point was the work of the Italian artist Giovanni Bracelli. In his paintings, the artist literally disassembles a person into components. His sketches are more reminiscent of drawings; in them, the human body is a constructor made of geometric shapes and mechanical parts. Bracelli's works, which he created in the 17th century, anticipated Cubism and became a premonition of robotics. The Little Ice Age also had a direct impact on music. The master created the famous Stradivarius violins from tree species that survived abnormal climate changes. The arrangement of the annual rings influenced the quality of the wood in such a way that it began to sound special. It is impossible to repeat the work of Stradivarius today, not because there are no masters, but because the trees from which he made his instruments are not available.

The Little Ice Age is a period of global (relative) cooling that took place on Earth during the 14th-19th centuries. This period is the coldest in terms of average annual temperatures over the past 2 thousand years. The Little Ice Age was preceded by a small climatic optimum (approximately X-XIII centuries) - a period of relatively warm and even weather, mild winters and the absence of severe droughts.

The Little Ice Age can be roughly divided into three phases.
The first phase is the XIV-XV centuries.
Researchers believe that the onset of the Little Ice Age was associated with a slowdown in the Gulf Stream around 1300. In the 1310s, Western Europe, judging by the chronicles, experienced a real environmental catastrophe. After the traditionally warm summer of 1311, four gloomy and rainy summers followed, 1312-1315. Heavy rains and unusually harsh winters led to the destruction of several crops and the freezing of orchards in England, Scotland, northern France and Germany. In Scotland and northern Germany, viticulture declined and wine production ceased. Winter frosts began to affect even northern Italy. F. Petrarch and G. Boccaccio recorded that in the 14th century. snow often fell in Italy. A direct consequence of the first phase was a massive famine in the first half of the 14th century - known in European chronicles as the Great Famine. Indirect - the crisis of the feudal economy, the resumption of corvée and major peasant uprisings in Western Europe. In the Russian lands, the first phase made itself felt in the form of a series of “rainy years” in the 14th century. Medieval legends claim that it was at this time that the mythical islands - the “Island of Maidens” and the “Island of the Seven Cities” - perished from storms in the Atlantic.

Beginning around the 1370s, temperatures in Western Europe slowly began to rise, and widespread famine and crop failures ceased. However, cold, rainy summers were common throughout the 15th century. In winter, snowfalls and frosts were often observed in southern Europe. Relative warming began only in the 1440s, and it immediately led to the rise of agriculture. However, the temperatures of the previous climatic optimum were not restored. For Western and Central Europe, snowy winters became common, and the period of “golden autumn” began in September (see the Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry - one of the masterpieces of book miniatures of the late Middle Ages).
The influence of the Little Ice Age on North America was also significant. The east coast of America was extremely cold, while the central and western parts of what is now the United States became so dry that the Midwest became a region of dust storms; mountain forests were completely burned out. Glaciers began to advance in Greenland, the summer thawing of the soil became increasingly short-lived, and by the end of the century permafrost was firmly established here. The amount of ice in the northern seas increased, and attempts made in subsequent centuries to reach Greenland usually ended in failure. Since the end of the 15th century, the advance of glaciers began in many mountainous countries and polar regions.

Miniature of the “Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry” 1409-1416.

The second phase, conventionally the 16th century, was marked by a temporary increase in temperature. Perhaps this was due to some acceleration of the Gulf Stream. Another explanation for the “interglacial” phase of the 16th century is maximum solar activity, which partially extinguished the negative effect of the slowdown of the Gulf Stream. In Europe, an increase in average annual temperatures was again recorded, although the level of the previous climatic optimum was not reached. Some chronicles even mention facts of “snowless winters” in the mid-16th century. However, from around 1560 the temperature began to slowly decrease. Apparently, this was due to the beginning of a decrease in solar activity. On February 19, 1600, the Huaynaputina volcano (Peru) erupted, the strongest in the history of South America. It is believed that this eruption was responsible for the great climatic changes at the beginning of the 17th century.

The Frozen Thames, Abraham Hondius (1677)

The third phase was the coldest period of the Little Ice Age. The reduced activity of the Gulf Stream coincided with the lowest activity after the 5th century. BC e. level of solar activity. After the relatively warm 16th century, the average annual temperature in Europe dropped sharply. Greenland - the “Green Land” - was covered with glaciers, and Viking settlements disappeared from the island. Even the southern seas froze. We went sledding along the Thames and Danube. The Moscow River was a reliable platform for fairs for six months. Global temperatures dropped by 1-2 degrees Celsius.
In the south of Europe, severe and long winters often recurred; in 1621-1669 the Bosporus Strait froze, and in the winter of 1708-1709 the Adriatic Sea froze off the coast. In the winter of 1620-1621, snow of “unheard-of depth” fell in Padua (Italy). The year 1665 turned out to be especially cold. In the winter of 1664-1665 in France and Germany, according to contemporaries, birds froze in the air. Across Europe there was a surge in deaths. Europe experienced a new wave of cooling in the 1740s. During this decade, the leading capitals of Europe - Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London - experienced regular snowstorms and snow drifts. France has experienced snowstorms several times. In Sweden and Germany, according to contemporaries, strong snowstorms often covered roads. Abnormal frosts were observed in Paris in 1784. Until the end of April, the city was under stable snow and ice cover. Temperatures ranged from −7 to −10 °C.

In Russia, the Little Ice Age was marked, in particular, by exceptionally cold summers in 1601, 1602 and 1604, when frosts struck in July - August and snow fell in early autumn. Unusual cold weather led to crop failure and famine, and as a result, according to some researchers, became one of the prerequisites for the beginning of the Time of Troubles. The winter of 1656 was so severe that when the Polish army entered the southern regions of the Russian Empire, two thousand people and a thousand horses died from frost. In the Lower Volga region in the winter of 1778, birds froze in flight and fell dead. During the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809. Russian troops crossed the Baltic Sea on ice. The Little Ice Age in Siberia was even colder. In 1740-1741 V. Bering's expedition recorded severe frosts in Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. The Swedish traveler I.P. Falk, who visited Siberia in 1771, wrote: “The climate is very harsh, the winter is severe and long... Blizzards often occur in May and September.” In the vicinity of Barnaul, the snow melted only by May 15, and the first leaves appeared on the trees on May 27 (new style). According to descriptions from 1826, in Zmeinogorsk in winter, all the streets and houses in the valleys were covered with snowdrifts up to the tops of the roofs.

Climatic reconstructions for the period 1000-2000. n. e., marked by the Little Ice Age.

The theory of the Little Ice Age is one of the most powerful arguments in the hands of opponents of the concepts of anthropogenic global warming and the greenhouse effect. They argue that modern warming is a natural exit from the Little Ice Age of the 14th-19th centuries, which may lead to the restoration of temperatures of the Little Climatic Optimum of the 14th-13th centuries or even the Atlantic Optimum. In this regard, in their opinion, it is not surprising that at the beginning of the 21st century, average annual temperatures regularly exceed the “climate norm”, because the “climate norms” themselves were written according to the standards of the relatively cold 19th century.

I am starting to publish my popular science article about the Little Ice Age in Western Europe and Russia.

In the history of Europe over the last millennium, the Little Ice Age was a significant event with great social consequences. The reasons for it, of course, were not understood by contemporaries and are being studied only today - if only for the sake of the fact that all climatic deviations tend to repeat themselves. To avoid being taken by surprise, you need to know more about this. The connection between natural and social events, characteristic of the Little Ice Age, seemed to have lost its relevance. But this is only at first glance. It is instructive and can shed light not only on the events of Russian history of the 16th and 17th centuries, but even on our time. But first things first.

Little Ice Age in Europe.

The Little Ice Age is a global cooling that began in the mid-16th century (the first notable event in Western Europe was the very severe winter of 1564-1565) and continued until the mid-19th century. Sometimes, however, the first cold strikes of the mid-15th century, and even earlier events, are attributed to it. There are currently few temperature reconstructions that could illustrate the climate changes of that time. But we will take an assessment that reflects them indirectly, through changes in the biosphere. These are variations in tree ring thickness from 14 locations in the Northern Hemisphere (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Standardized tree ring thickness in the Northern Hemisphere, 1500-1990.

It is clearly visible that from the beginning of the 16th century to its end, the thickness of tree rings decreased by a full third! This is proof of a strong climate change. The changes, of course, occurred not only to the trees, but also affected a sharp decrease in yields. From the 1560s to the end of the century, wheat prices in Europe increased 3-4 times everywhere. On the one hand, Spain was to blame - it “overproduced” silver, but, as can be seen from the prices of industrial goods, this contributed to a rise in prices by 60-80%. Prices for plant products were determined primarily by climate change.

It was a long ordeal for agrarian societies. After an extremely difficult period in the middle XVI – first third of XVII centuries, the climate remained unstable for another two centuries. There were several more severe cold spells - the last of them occurred in the first half XIX centuries and caused famine and a wave of emigration from Germany, Ireland and Scandinavia to America. And this was at a time when potatoes had already spread to Europe, which led to a long-term growth of its population.

If we go back to the beginning of the Little Ice Age, its arrival is well described by the change in the purchasing power of Europeans. For example, this is how the purchasing power of a skilled European carpenter changed (Fig. 2), measured in liters of grain or in the number of chickens that could be bathed for a week's earnings.

Rice. 2. Change in the purchasing power of the master carpenter XIV - first half 18th century .

Both scales are, of course, connected - chickens are fed grain. The prices of other agricultural products are also related by proportions. It follows from them that the standard of living of a European artisan fell from the mid-15th century to the mid-late 16th century by 4-5 times. More precisely, the decline happened faster - in one or two decades. Much of Europe has become much worse off. According to archaeologists, the average height of a mature man in Northern Europe from the 15th-16th centuries to the 17th-18th centuries decreased by almost 4 cm - from 171.4 cm to 167.5 cm. And again began to recover only in the 19th century. And we must also take into account that more severe winters required more fuel, for which Europe was not rich, and, as a result, a weakening of the population and a number of epidemics.

When the climate changes, the number of its long-term and sharp deviations increases, leading to crop failures. Western Europe suffered a series of mass famines - in the 1590s, 1620s and at the border of the 17th-18th centuries. To this should be added famine in certain countries. The northern countries suffered more - the Danish settlements in Greenland died out, the population of Iceland decreased by half, in Scandinavia, where there were also crop failures and famine, the population found salvation in sea fishing. Frosts destroyed vineyards in England, Poland, and northern Germany. Alpine glaciers began to grow, destroying pastures and villages.

In addition to economic consequences, climate change had dramatic social changes. They were also fundamentally determined by the economy, which changed with the Little Ice Age.

Social changes in Europe: changing course.

The social dimensions of the climate change in the second half of the 16th century were diverse and many serious works were devoted to their study .

The changes that occurred required explanation within the framework of the understanding of the world of that time. People still actively believed in the intervention of higher powers. As a result, they found the culprits - witches, supposedly influencing the weather with witchcraft. The hunt for them has begun. This is what B. Fagan writes : “In the small town of Wiesensteig in Germany, 63 women were put to death at the stake in 1563 during a time of heated debate about God’s intervention in the weather (note: the burning took place before the first severe winter - S.P.). Witch hunts erupted periodically after the 1560s. Between 1580 and 1620 In the Bern region alone, more than 1,000 people were burned for witchcraft. Accusations of witches in France and England reached a peak in the difficult years of 1587 and 1588. Almost invariably, the psychosis of executions coincided with the most difficult years of the Little Ice Age, when people demanded the destruction of witches, considering them the culprits of misfortunes.” Let us add that the burning of a witch was usually accompanied by the sale of her property and a celebration with the proceeds, as they would say now, a banquet. Therefore, rich bourgeois women often became targets of persecution.

Discussions about the nature of weather variations, even such ones, meant the emergence of meteorology . Even then, weather observations and temperature measurements began. At that time, many other sciences arose - and also in forms unusual for our eyes. For example, alchemy became more active – and gained enormous support from the powers that be! European rulers and other influential people, who became less wealthy as a result of a decrease in their usual income, also looked for such ways to fill the treasury. Astrology also became more active - in uncertain times, everyone wanted to know their future. Even Tycho Brahe and Kepler compiled horoscopes.

At the same time, fantasies about robotics arose - the first robot was the mythical Golem of Prague Rabbi Lev. He made it out of clay and put a piece of paper with a task in his ear - what a program! The clay man was able to work for the owner, replacing a living servant and saving wages.

Fig.3 Drawings by the classic Mannerist Giovanni Brazelli - ring people, diamond people, robots, skeletal alchemists.

The same kind of mannerism is a strange but characteristic phenomenon that arose at that time in painting, known, in particular, for constructing a person from parts - geometric figures, bird cages, homogeneous parts. This is a completely unexpected phenomenon, like cubism - but more than 300 years before it. Mannerism is not only a phenomenon of art. The bell man, the grindstone man, the dresser man are the idea of ​​a mechanical doll with a given function, the same robot as the Golem, but more specific, ready to move into the sphere of design. The first technical revolution was not far away, and, as we see, its technical design appeared ahead of the curve.

However, robots and machines are still far away, and money is needed today; we need to save on payments now. And in Europe, almost freed from serfdom during the rise of agriculture, the period of the “second edition” of serfdom begins. A good confirmation of the observation that economic excess gives freedom - and vice versa. The introduction of serfdom was a clear step back, a typical regression, meaning a return to non-monetary payment for the services of the nobles.

Moreover, it should be noted that they tried to carry out enslavement of the peasants in places where serfdom had not existed before - for example, in Sweden, which required a regular army. There they calculated exactly how many peasants could support one soldier, how many could support an officer, and entrusted the peasants with maintaining the army. But in Sweden, serfdom still did not acquire lasting features: Swedish harvests were too low, the people were unaccustomed to the yoke, but accustomed to weapons.

Therefore, perhaps Sweden has become an outstanding example of the revival of a method that also helped make money in the past - piracy, mainly in the Baltic. And its neighbor Norway sent pirates to the North Sea to rob English merchants sailing to Russia and back. At the same time, English corsairs robbed Spanish ships.

Sweden also remembered and increased the Vikings' successes on land, becoming one of the main victors of the Thirty Years' War and seizing huge chunks of the Baltic Sea coast.

At the same time, monarchical power began to strengthen; its attack on the rights of cities began. Absolutism is a new form of economic and social organization.

The pressures of climate change and their economic consequences are clearly responsible for a number of bloody events at the beginning of the Little Ice Age - for example, the civil wars in France 1562-1594, the most acute period of which began with the famous St. Bartholomew's Night (August 24, 1572). The price rise started there from the beginning XV century, but the main events of the multilateral social conflict occurred during a particularly noticeable decline in agricultural production.

And in Spain at that time there was a decline in agriculture and an amazing way to replenish the treasury - a 10% tax on each sale (with 4 resales it was more than 40% of the original price). Spain tried to introduce the same tax in the Netherlands (while also fighting Protestant heretics) - there began a long period of uprisings and wars (1567-1609).

But England began to develop a truly new approach: intensive agriculture, a capitalist mode of production in the countryside. IN XVI century, 46 works on agronomic topics were published in England. In the first half XVI centuries, English “sheep ate the people” (Thomas More), that is, large wool producers fenced their plots and drove out small tenants; in the second, large farms began to grow in other industries. Agricultural technology grew rapidly. But even here there were political events that can be associated with the cold snap - England took possession of Ireland, weakened by crop failures, and almost subjugated Scotland, where famine was also raging.

What have we discovered in the history of that time? If, in response to climate complications, some countries returned to the past - serfdom, piracy, mysticism, then in other countries capitalism won - in XVI - XVII centuries, England, the Netherlands, and France, with varying levels of complications, moved to the development of manufactories and the active development of trade. The climate shock has accelerated this transition in dramatic ways. But then the uneven development of Europe gave rise to a major conflict comparable to the world wars XX century - the Thirty Years' War, where the trace of the climate change had a “generalizing character” and those better adapted to it defeated the losers.

Note that acute economic conflicts XVI centuries gave rise to a number of terrible historical figures like Henry VIII (1500-1547), who executed about 72 thousand people in England, Marie de Medici (1519-1589), who provoked a bloody war in France, Philip II (1556-1598), who contributed to the decline of Spain and many years of bloody war in the Netherlands. But the rulers who contributed to progress were not distinguished by good characters - remember Elizabeth I Tudor, who did a lot for the development of English capitalism and colonialism, however, a merciless lady, William of Orange, who fiercely fought for leadership in the Dutch revolution, French Henry IV , who ended the war in France and contributed to its bourgeois turn, later killed by enemies. And there were more figures on the thrones than ever before who were strange or simply crazy. Of particular note is Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), collector and philanthropist, fan of alchemy and magic, who loved everything unusual.
For the graph were used Pfister, C. Brázdil, R. Glaser, R. Climatic Variability in Sixteenth-Century Europe and Its Social Dimension. Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.

Behringer W. Climatic Change and Witch-Hunting: The Impact of the Little Ice Age on Mentalities IN: Climatic Variability in the Sixteenth-Century Europe and Its Social DimensionSpecial Issue of Climatic Change, Vol. 43, No. 1, September 1999