The Origins and Development of the Term “Little Ice Age”

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Gilson
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Early Adoption ◽  
Historical Climatology ◽  
American Geophysical ◽  
Adoption And Diffusion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Diffusion

This essay examines the definition and early development of the term “Little Ice Age,” a source of controversy in early modern studies and historical climatology. American geologist François Matthes first used the term “little ice-age” to describe the preceding 4,000 years, during which glaciers reached their greatest extent since the final Ice Age of the Pleistocene. Matthes’s reports for the American Geophysical Union’s Committee on Glaciers, however, demonstrate the critical importance of the sixteenth through nineteenth century. This essay discusses the relationship between Matthes’s theories of glaciation and climatic periodization and those of his predecessors and contemporaries, including Charles Rabot, Gordon Manley and G.S. Callendar. This essay also examines the early adoption and diffusion of Matthes’s evocative term, which appeared in popular publications only a decade after its initial introduction.

The Compound Marine Steam Engine: A Study in the Relationship Between Technological Change and Economic Development

1967 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramon Knauerhase
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Growth Process ◽  
Steam Engine ◽  
Adoption And Diffusion ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Sailing Ship

One of the most important problems in the study of economic development is the role of technological change in the growth process. My dissertation is an analysis of some of the major variables which influenced the timing of the invention, adoption, and diffusion of the compound marine steam engine. The problem was divided into three parts: (1) all those variables pertaining directly to the invention of the engine, and the very first effects on the cost structure of the steamship industry; (2) the role of the compound marine steam engine in the growth of the German merchant fleet, 1872–1887, with special emphasis on the diffusion of the invention and its productivity effects; and (3) the effect of the compound steam engine on the sailing ship component of the German merchant fleet.

scholarly journals Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1643-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter N Peregrine
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Social Disruption ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
The Relationship

The Late Antique Little Ice Age, spanning the period from 536 CE to roughly 560 CE, saw temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere drop by a degree C in less than a decade. This rapid cooling is thought to have caused widespread famine, epidemic disease, and social disruption. The relationship between cooling and social disruption is examined here using a set of high-resolution climate and historical data. A significant link between cooling and social disruption is demonstrated, but it is also demonstrated that the link is highly variable, with some societies experiencing dramatic cooling changing very little, and others experiencing only slight cooling changing dramatically. This points to variation in vulnerability, and serves to establish the Late Antique Little Ice Age as a context within which naturalistic quasi-experiments on vulnerability to climate change might be conducted.

scholarly journals De sequías a riadas: casos de alta variabilidad climática desde las fuentes eclesiásticas de Orihuela (1700-1750)

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-67
Author(s):  
Claudio Cremades Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Religious Institution ◽  
Droughts And Floods ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Over Time

RESUMENEste estudio analiza los impactos de sequías e inundaciones en el Bajo Segura durante la primera mitad del siglo xviii. Apoyándonos en trabajos precedentes, hemos tratado de aportar datos inéditos sobre las repercusiones de los riesgos naturales. Para ello hemos analizado los Libros de Actas Capitulares del cabildo eclesiástico oriolano, custodiados en el Archivo Diocesano de Orihuela. El resultado es un recorrido cronológico por los contrastes climáticos del marco geográfico, acentuando los episodios hidrometeorológicos más extremos y delimitando en el tiempo los períodos de mayor irregularidad. Igualmente nos aproximamos a la relación entre el clima y el devenir histórico de las vulnerables sociedades preindustriales desde la perspectiva de la referida institución religiosa. Para dotar de mayor dimensión al estudio, nos acercaremos sucintamente a las fundamentales rogativas pro pluvia y pro serenitate, y cómo estas evolucionaron entre 1700 y 1750.PALABRAS CLAVEOrihuela, Pequeña Edad del Hielo, sequías, inundaciones, riadas, rogativas. TITLEFrom droughts to fl oods: high climatic variability cases from the ecclesiastical sources of Orihuela (1700-1750)ABSTRACTThis study analyzes the droughts and floods impacts in Bajo Segura during the first half of the 18th century. Supporting us in the precedents works, we tried to provide unpublished data on the repercussions of natural risks. For this purpose, we have turned over and analyzed the Chapter Record Books of the Oriolan Ecclesiastical Chapter, kept in the Diocesan Archives of Orihuela (A.D.O). The result is a chronological journey through the climatic contrasts of the geographical frame, accentuating the most extreme hydrometeorological episodes and delimiting periods of greatest irregularity over time. We also approach the relationship between the climate and the historical evolution of the vulnerable pre-industrial societies from the aforementioned religious institution perspective. To give a greater dimension to the study, we will briefly approach the fundamental rogation pro pluvia and pro serenitate, and how they evolved between 1700 and 1750.KEY WORDSOrihuela, Little Ice Age, droughts, floods, stream, rogation.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Sophie Chiari
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Early Modern Drama ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Modern Drama ◽  
Weather And Climate

Torn as they were between trying to control their own destinies and letting God shape their actions, the Elizabethan and Jacobean subjects still looked for answers in the skies while they were also anxious to fashion their own lives in more coherent or rational ways than before. This Introduction gives clear definitions of the concepts used in the book (‘climate’, ‘weather’, ‘environment’) and presents the various approaches to weather and climate that prevailed at the turn of the seventeenth century. It also explains how early modern writers capitalised on both traditional and innovative views of the sky and emphasises both the influence of classical thought and the harsh realities of what is now known as the ‘Little Ice Age’. It finally introduces weather issues in connection with early modern drama and shows that the Shakespearean skies, in particular, are much more than a mere reservoir of metaphors.

Constraints and Dynamics

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malanima Paolo ◽  
Astrid Kander ◽  
Paul Warde
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Mechanical Work ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Energy Prices ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Energy Carriers

This chapter examines the dynamics of the early modern European economy in order to highlight both the possibilities for development and the constraints of the old European world. It first considers population and climate, focusing on two main changes: saving land, which implied a transition in the kind of energy carriers, and saving labor, which indicated a transition in the kind of converters used to engender mechanical work. The chapter proceeds by discussing the demographic transition in Europe, the last phase of the Little Ice Age, and the output of the soil in Europe. It also assesses energy scarcity, taking into account energy prices, real wages and living conditions, fuels, the decline in energy consumption per head, and the rise in efficiency. Finally, it describes the use of coal and peat in Europe.

Relationships between glacier and rock glacier in the Maritime Alps, Schiantala Valley, Italy

2007 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Ribolini ◽  
Alessandro Chelli ◽  
Mauro Guglielmin ◽  
Marta Pappalardo
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Geophysical Methods ◽  
Ice Crystals ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Ice Formation ◽  
Dc Resistivity ◽  
Rock Glacier ◽  
Maritime Alps ◽  
Rock Glaciers ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIn the Schiantala Valley of the Maritime Alps, the relationship between a till-like body and a contiguous rock glacier has been analyzed using geomorphologic, geoelectric and ice-petrographic methodologies. DC resistivity tomographies undertaken in the till and in the rock glacier show the presence of buried massive ice and ice-rich sediments, respectively. Ice samples from a massive ice outcrop show spherical gas inclusions and equidimensional ice crystals that are randomly orientated, confirming the typical petrographic characteristics of sedimentary ice. The rock glacier formation began after a phase of glacier expansion about 2550"50 14C yr BP. Further ice advance during the Little Ice Age (LIA) overrode the rock glacier root and caused partial shrinkage of the pre-existing permafrost. Finally, during the 19th and 20th centuries, the glacial surface became totally debris covered. Geomorphological and geophysical methods combined with analyses of ice structure and fabric can effectively interpret the genesis of landforms in an environment where glaciers and permafrost interact. Ice petrography proved especially useful for differentiating ice of past glaciers versus ice formed under permafrost conditions. These two mechanisms of ice formation are common in the Maritime Alps where many sites of modern rock glaciers were formerly occupied by LIA glaciers.

Debating the Little Ice Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Kelly ◽  
Cormac Ó Gráda
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Temperature Series ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Modern Europe

The commentaries of White and of Büntgen and Hellmann in this journal fail to prove that Europe experienced the kind of sustained falls in temperature between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries that can justify the notion of a Little Ice Age. Neither of them adequately addresses the cogency of the anecdotal or statistical evidence as presented in Kelly and Ó Gráda's article, “The Waning of the Little Ice Age: Climate Change in Early Modern Europe,” especially with regard to the spurious peaks and troughs created by the smoothing of temperature series—the so-called Slutsky Effect.

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