What the 'Little Ice Age' can teach us about today's climate crisis

Aug 2, 2021

We can learn from a period of history called the 'Little Ice Age' about how successful populations adapted to changing temperatures. Image: REUTERS/Yves Herman

Dagomar Degroot

Associate Professor of Environmental History, Georgetown University

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a map showing how temperatures fell well below normal in parts of Europe in 1816.

Temperatures fell well below normal in parts of Europe in 1816. Image: Dagomar Degroot, CC BY-ND

this 1775 painting documents a disastrous storm in the Netherlands

Disastrous storms, like one in 1775 in the Netherlands, were documented by engravers and other artists. Image: Noach van der Meer II, after Hendrik Kobell

this is a visualization of temperature anomalies over 2,000 years

Visualizing temperature anomalies over 2,000 years, with colder temperatures in darker blues and hotter temperatures in darker reds, shows the chilly periods of the Little Ice Age and the extreme warming of today. Image: Ed Hawkins

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