History tells us that bad things happen when the climate cools. Very bad things. The first of the cold periods we will examine came at the end of the Bronze Age’s Minoan Warm Period.
A drop in temperature at the start of the 13th century B.C. ushered in dramatic changes that were devastating to humanity. Drought descended on Europe, North Africa, West Asia and western North America. The ever-greater numbers of people residing in ever-larger cities of ambitious empires were overcome by sudden climatic changes.
Areas that once prospered now faced famine and hunger. Between 1250 and 1150 B.C. there was widespread decimation of nearly all the great empires that had prospered during the Minoan Warm Period. This period of societal collapse is known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
According to historian David Kaniewski (2013): "The abrupt climate change at the end of the Late Bronze Age caused region-wide crop failures, leading towards socio-economic crises and unsustainability."
Following the collapse, survivors entered a “dark age” where iron replaced bronze and nearly all trade, art and architecture disappeared:
Once again, we find that, contrary to claims of additional warming leading to catastrophe, history tells us that we should welcome the warmth and fear the cold.
