The Fimbulvinter: A Real Climate Disaster

The Fenris wolf swallows the sun. The climate disaster that began the year 536 was surely the most dramatic cooling of the Earth that humans, animals and plants have experienced in the last two thousand years. It was likely due to two large volcanic explosions, which every few years sent huge amounts of fine dust high into the atmosphere. There was dust for several years. The sun disappeared.... probably half of the populations of Norway and Sweden died.
A lot is known about the event now. It seems to have passed into myth as a cyclical warning of Ragnarok. Volcanoes do pose a real risk of sudden global cooling, and there are other similar risks that are massive. Solar EMPs, asteroid strikes, these things are real problems that will come up sooner or later.

8 comments:

J Melcher said...

Two or more birds with one stone is a goal worth pursuing. A "solution" that addresses, even imperfectly, two or more "problems" is a better use of our resources than one solution that addresses only one problem.

Reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations does nothing to protect the coasts from earthquake or volcanic tidal waves, for instance. Improving barrier islands and sea walls AND moving infrastructure to higher ground would address tidal waves and the rising tides projected to arise from warming (gradual or otherwise.)

Building nuclear waste disposal sites will clean up the detritus of 20th weapons programs AND make 21st century clean energy more feasible.



Grim said...

That’s a good general principle, although I can think of an exception: single-use moves can be worthwhile if they are sufficiently inexpensive. For example, making it a standard practice to always build Faraday cages around electrical infrastructure only protects against EMPs. But Faraday cages are cheap and can be welded by almost anyone with minimal training, using readily available steel. It’s worth doing even though it’s one-use. The cost/benefit ratio is justifiable.

Dad29 said...

Solar EMPs, asteroid strikes

And solar-flare minimums--like the one we are approaching now.

Grim said...

I was just reading about the solar minimum this morning. It looks like a new cycle is starting.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/12/24/reverse-polarity-sunspots-appear-on-the-sun-ending-a-39-day-stretch-of-spotless-days/

E Hines said...

Faraday cages are cheap and can be welded....

They don't even need to be welded. My prof and I built a 10x10x10 Faraday cage in the basement of our college psych department out of ordinary copper screening, wood 2x4s, and nails. We did need a concrete drill, though, to get a hole through the basement floor so we could drive the grounding spike. The basement itself, even underground as it was in the middle of Iowa, was no protection. We built the cage because my rats' brain implants were picking up WLS out of Chicago, drowning out the neuron signals I was trying to receive.

Of course, larger cages might benefit from welding, but if the building--even skyscrapers--are built as Faraday cages from the (under)ground up, no welding specifically for the cage would be needed.

The real problem with EMP is isolating the devices to be protected from the power grid and any radio/TV antennas and signal cabling: power lines, signal cabling, and building electrical wiring are just wave guides for the pulse.

Regarding atmospheric CO2, I see no value at all, and a whole lot of expense and environmental danger in trying. Life was exceedingly lush at times when atmospheric CO2 was significantly higher than today, and at the low point of the last Ice Age, atmospheric CO2 content fell to ~180ppm (which stunted plant growth) against a threshold of ~150ppm for plant life to not starve. https://wryheat.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/carbon-dioxide-is-necessary-for-life-on-earth/ (And, as the first graph indicates, there is little correlation between atmospheric CO2 content and temperature.)

Eric Hines

David Foster said...

" Solar EMPs, asteroid strikes, these things are real problems that will come up sooner or later."

And why, one might ask, are the media and political classes less interested in these threats than in Climate Change?

I think the reason is, that none of these things offers an open-ended claim to take control of all aspects of society. The solutions to the solar EMP threat, or to the asteroid threat, might be very expensive, but would be strictly limited in their footprint on the overall society.

E Hines said...

The solutions to the solar EMP threat, or to the asteroid threat, might be very expensive, but would be strictly limited in their footprint on the overall society.

I'm not convinced this is true. Those very expensive solutions would have to be covered by taxing, and the ability to tax, especially to inflict massive taxes, is a very strong power over the breadth and depth of society.

Eric Hines

David Foster said...

Eric...true, these solutions might require significant additional taxes....but so did cold-war-era armaments and military deployment programs. Still not comparable to the micromanagement of everything from plastic bags to natural gas in homes to *cows* which is envisaged by the AOC-type Democrats.