One interesting bit of anecdotal data regarding global warming -- the first I ever came across, in fact, way back in the 80s before climate change was on the cultural radar -- was an off-handed mention somewhere that about two to three hundred years ago, it looked like the earth was about to enter another ice age. (In fact, the period is actually called "The Little Ice Age".) The specific example given was British winters depicted in the works of Charles Dickens -- deadly, frigid blizzard-strewn morasses of ice and snow that don't look anything like the relatively mild winters Great Britain gets today. (Most fellow Americans I've spoken to about it who have no other experience of England than "A Christmas Carol" and Downton Abbey seem to think that the Dickens-standard winter is just what England gets -- with at least one person I spoke to pointing out that England is roughly at the same latitude as Siberia. I find it oddly amusing that Americans seem to know more about what England's climate was like two centuries ago than today.)
Anyway, in the piece I was reading -- and I wish I could remember what it was, but it's just too long ago no -- the writer made an off-handed suggestion that the Little Ice Age was actually a Big Ice Age that had been staved off just in time by greenhousing caused by smoke and other pollutants emitted by the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. I remember thinking something to the effect of "wow, that's interesting and pretty lucky for us" (and to my shame not extrapolating to "but we're putting out lots more pollution now than 18th-century England... what's that gonna do?" To his shame, the writer didn't extrapolate, either).
I understand that the idea of pollution as the sole mitigator of the Little Ice Age isn't the most likely explanation any more, if it ever was. But it does seem to have played a part, in addition to solar cycles and whatnot.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Anyway, in the piece I was reading -- and I wish I could remember what it was, but it's just too long ago no -- the writer made an off-handed suggestion that the Little Ice Age was actually a Big Ice Age that had been staved off just in time by greenhousing caused by smoke and other pollutants emitted by the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. I remember thinking something to the effect of "wow, that's interesting and pretty lucky for us" (and to my shame not extrapolating to "but we're putting out lots more pollution now than 18th-century England... what's that gonna do?" To his shame, the writer didn't extrapolate, either).
I understand that the idea of pollution as the sole mitigator of the Little Ice Age isn't the most likely explanation any more, if it ever was. But it does seem to have played a part, in addition to solar cycles and whatnot.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.