Climates of Hunger: Mankind and the World's Changing Weather

Contents

Foreword Prologue I: Two Tales of Famine 1 A Drought in Ancient Greece 2 The Case of the Missing Farmers 3 Weather oflndian Times II: Our Climates since A.D. 900 Contents ix xi 3 19 31 4 One Thousand Years in Iceland 47 5 The Flow of Wine, Water, and Ice 57 6 The Past 1,000 Years: Europe, the North Atlantic, the United States 65 III: The Monsoons Fail 7 Death in the Sahel 8 A Manmade Desert 9 The Enduring Problem IV: A Perspective on Climatic Change 10 In the Beginning 11 How Climate Changes 12 Pollutants in the Air 13 The Lessons of Climatic History References Index 95 107 115 123 133 143 153 159 165 v Illustrations 1.1 Population changes at the time of the Mycenaean decline 1.2 Rainfall in Greece: comparison of January 1955 with average of Januaries 1950-66 1.3 Storm tracks in the Mediterranean 1.4 A polar view showing one possible configuration of the westerlies 6 9 13 14 2.1 Mild and severe winters in western Europe, A.D. 950-1450 2.2 3.1 Patterns of the westerlies 25 26-27 3.2 July precipitation decreases to be expected with a slightly expanded flow of the westerlies Area occupied by the Mill Creek people about A.D. 900-1400 3.3 Percentages of elk, deer, and bison bones found at Mill 32 34 Creek site B 38 3.4 Number of animal bones found at Mill Creek site B 38 3.5 Number of potsherds found at Mill Creek site B 38 3.6 Schematic comparison of Mill Creek culture sites A, B, C 40 3.7 Pollen records from Mill Creek site B 42 4.1 The North Atlantic 48 4.2 A thousand years of Icelandic temperatures 55 5.1 Comparison of French wine harvest dates and growing season average temperatures 62 6.1 Comparison of price of wheat and North Atlantic temperatures 76 6.2 Temperatures in central England, 1680-1960 79 6.3 Simplified version of Bishop Resen's map of 1605 80 6.4 Chart of Gulf Stream headings 82 6.5 Early fall temperatures for the eastern United States: comparison of the 1830s with 1931-60 86 vii viii Illustrations 6.6 Annual temperature differences between the midnineteenth century and 1931-60 in the United States 87 6.7 July-August rainfall in the United States: comparison of the 1850s and 1860s with 1931-60 87 7.1 The Sahelian zone 96 7.2 Daytime sea breeze 100 7.3 Nighttime land breeze 100 7.4 Typical surface wind patterns and the ITO, July 102 7.5 Northward penetration of the monsoon rains in North Africa 103 7.6 Simplified view of the relative positions of the westerlies and the ITO in summer 105 8.1 India and the Indus River valley 108 8.2 Summer monsoon rainfall, calculated from pollen data, Lunkaransar, Rajasthan, India 111 9.1 Observed effect of cattle overgrazing in Africa 117 9.2 Projected results of human overpopulation associated with varying food supply 118 10.1 Global ice volumes of the past million years 127 10.2 Northern Hemisphere temperatures of the past 150,000 years 128 10.3 Northern Hemisphere temperatures of the past 25,000 years 129 10.4 July temperatures for the past 13,000 years at Kirchner Marsh, Minnesota, and at a lake in southern Manitoba 129 10.5 Northern Hemisphere temperatures ofthe past 1,000 years 130 10.6 Northern Hemisphere temperatures ofthe past 100 years 130 12.1 A city dust-dome 150 ...