“Glaciers Before and During the Little Ice Age, and Why We Care”
Michael Kaplan
9 Feb 2019
Peter Brueghel the Younger “Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap” (early 1600s)
The climate from about 1300 to 1850 was much cooler than its had been during the “Medieval Warm Period” in the preceding centuries. Much of Europe experienced very cold winters, glimpses of which were recorded in such paintings as the one above. It was during this period that many of the events crucial to early American history took place, as well as others affected the wider globe. Scientists are able to use a variety of “proxies” to attempt climate reconstructions.
Mike Kaplan is a Lamont Associate Research Scientists in the Geochemistry Division who has shared some of his research in previous E2C programs. This year, he will discuss investigations about the Little Ice Age impacts as revealed through cosmogenic studies in the Andes.
Slideshows/videos
“Glaciers before and during the Little Ice Age–Dr. Mike Kaplan
“The Little Ice Age” introduction — Dr. Mike Passow
AMNH Science Bulletins: Shrinking Glaciers–A Chronology of Climate Change
Suggested General Readings:
“Little Ice Age Geochronology” Encyclopaedia Britannica
“Little Ice Age” Environmental History
“America colonisation ‘cooled Earth’s climate’”
“Little Ice Age, Big Consequences”
“London’s Last Frost Fair (1814)”
“A Norfolk Parson on the Bitter Winter of 1795”
“How GW and the Weather Saved the American Revolution”
“Mount Tambora and the Year without Summer”
Suggested Technical Readings:
Polissar, P.J. et al. (2006) “Solar modulation of Little Ice Age climate in the tropical Andes”
Pieter Breughel the Elder Hunters in the Snow (1565) — Life in a Northern Europe winter during the Little Ice Age
Khan Academy discussion of this painting
Previous E2C Presentations by Mike Kaplan
“Can You Imagine the New York Area during the Ice Age?” (Dec 2016)
“How Have Glaciers Behaved in Patagonia in the Past?” (Oct 2014)
“Shrinking Glaciers: A Chronology of Climate Change” (Oct 2013)
Selected Educational Resources
Selected NGSS DCIs, PEs, and CCCs
Teaching Climate and Climate Change pdf version
“Investigating Climate Past: The Little Ice Age Case Study” (UCAR)
“Earth System Science–Profound Ideas”
MORE WILL BE ADDED SOON
