Redwood Reader

Several recent reports concerning global warming and climate change show the problem is less immutable than forecast. Some of these studies concur that major changes are in the works and that there may be catastrophic consequences if action is not taken. However, the knowledge and/or technology currently exists to make immediate impacts in many of the problem areas. They also tell us some predictions are based on faulty science. And sometimes events are so extreme all conjecture is pointless.
Greenhouse gases are said to be the major cause of global warming. Carbon dioxide, ozone, methane are large components. Carbon dioxide levels are not at any historic high level although they are higher relatively since we started measuring for it. Ice cores, sediments, tree rings and plant material remains all show fluctuations over time in CO2 levels. These are directly relatable to known wobbles in earths climate like the Roman and Medieval warm period, the European Dark Ages and Little Ice Age, each of which were reflected in society at the time. They also seem related to solar oscillation on a millennial basis, completely conflicting the comet theory. The ability to connect climate and history is one of the great benefits of global warming research. “As more and more scientists dig into all parts of the planet to study its climatic history, they unearth more and more evidence for the global reality of the [likely] solar-forced millennial-scale climatic oscillation that has alternately brought us long intervals of relative warmth and coolness, such as the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age and, most recently, the Modern Warm Period.”
After the Roman pullout from Britain, groups of Germanic peoples crossed the channel and settled western Britain. Once thought conquering invaders, these people are now thought to be a relatively small population with enough military power to preserve their customs, even impose them, on a foreign land and gain political ascendancy. British fighters were forced west and north.
In approximately 500AD British fighters defeated the Saxons at Baden Hill, and restored British suzerainty over the island. According to legend and history, this was an unprecedented time of peace and plenty for the British people, and is attributed to one of several potential King Arthurs.
In 540 AD something happened somewhere in the world to change all this. A year with no summer caused crop failure throughout Europe. Many different lines of investigation point to cooling probably from atmospheric pollution from volcanism, although this cause is not settled and recently a comet proposal has gained backing. Regardless, the effect of several years of reduced crops led to famine and chaos around the world. Political instability caused great human movement on the German plain and new waves of settlers headed to England. These settlers carved England into smaller and smaller kingdoms until military operations reconsolidated them. Native British were forced to Scotland and Wales, with many recrossing the channel to Brittany, where they awaited an opportunity to return to Britain.
Seen with the eyes of the world gone mad it is not surprising the European Dark Ages are a result. If hunger is dire, all else is moot. The Saxons consolidated their power over the natives and amongst themselves and ruled Britain until 1066 when the British people in Brittany saw their opportunity. Many other peoples were on the move around 540, and one can read of many kingdoms and cultures going through upheaval at this time. The strange effects were recorded by observers from Rome to China who noted that the sun went dark for more than a year and all the crops failed.
" ‘The Sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the Moon, during this whole year, and it seemed very much like the Sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear," wrote Procopius of Greece in 536 A.D.’ Said another source, the Roman writer Cassiodorus: ‘We have had a winter without storms, spring without mildness, summer without heat. Whence can we hope for mild weather, when the months that once ripened the crops have been deadly sick under the northern blasts? ... Out of all the elements, we find these two opposed to us: perpetual frost and unnatural drought.’
These Norman people were the native British, falsely identified as Viking raiders descendants, who would have left too small a population to raise an army. The continental British had taken the trappings of their new home, and used the language of state at the time. While the British army fought Norse invaders in the North, Norman forces landed in the South. Defeating the Norse, the army raced south to face the new threat. The English did an outstanding job with untrained but battle tested levees at Hastings, fighting an enemy superior in every battlefield category. When all else failed though, the Normans resorted to ruse to break the English (Saxon) shield wall. They turned and ran. The undisciplined English broke ranks to chase them. William then released his heavy cavalry, the armored troops of the day, and rode down the lightly armed English and winning the day for the native British expatriates. A hundred and fifty years of consolidation took place with powerful Norman rule causing resentment and anger among the Saxon peoples, resulting in the Magna Carta and the establishment of the Pale in Ireland, England’s oldest claim on Irish soil.
This little tale covering five hundred years shows the power of random events on political stability. Palynological (ancient pollen) studies in Ireland show a cycle of human depopulation and reversion of crop lands to pasture and eventually forests starting at this time, and drought in the Eastern Mediterranean. Miller said that further confirmation of this unnatural climatic period comes from tree-ring data in several parts of the world. Ancient trees such as the 4,000-year-old bristle cone pines in California show that the years around 540 A.D. were those of the least growth in four millennia.”
The 540 AD event is well known as a climatological occurrence. Its exact cause is unclear. Several large volcanoes might explain it, and this year a comet impact from a relatively small comet was shown to at least be a realistic possibility. The Justinian plague, first reported bubonic plague outbreak in Europe occurred at this time. It is possible a starving population let an endemic disease become a plague in a starving population. We shudder to think of the chaos a similar event would have. One would like to think we could use our technology to offset the problems using greenhouses and light to grow food. Unfortunately, these technologies could only help a percentage of the people in industrialized nations. Large masses of starving people would begin moving and armed forces would be needed to protect dwindling resources. Favoritism would have to be displayed and would lead to more instability and fighting. Powerful nations would be able to maintain security initially but not in all other countries. Small countries would then ally themselves and a new reconsolidation would begin. All of this glosses over the millions of deaths and stark misery of ecology out of balance, along with a stagnation or decline of intellectual development, or making it worse with catastrophic weapons.
In response to this, it seems humans have discovered how they are harming our stability. Technology and information exists that can offset the new man-made threats if we act hastily enough. Predictions of conditions allowed to foment are stark, but preventable, as is use of catastrophic weapons. At some point we can expect an ecological shift and the political consequences that will follow, but we do not have to create these.

Clues to European Dark Ages found in Nemea, Greece, by UC Berkeley professor
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/98legacy/12-9-1998a.html
Geoscience at the BA: What gave the Earth a nasty turn in 540? September 8, 2000
http://www.grailchurch.org/comet540.htm
Discovery Programme (Palynological studies in Ireland)
http://www.discoveryprogramme.ie/Research_Area/Content/PALY/PALY.htm
Global Volcanism Program
http://www.volcano.si.edu/index.cfm
A New Temperature History from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
http://www.co2science.org/journal/2003/v6n4c3.htm