Letter to the Future: Rough Draft

Dear intellects of 2216,

     Currently in 2016 the word climate has been very controversial. Few people see it as a word that means weather but several immediately think that it means global warming or climate change. The head master of our school briefly talked to us about how there is a major epidemic soon to happen. Sea levels are on the rise because ice caps are starting to melt and certain countries will soon be under water. Currently this problem is happening and it is in our own United States of America. Our head master, Mr. Rainey, read somewhere that the state of Louisiana is losing a football field of land a year. He also says that in the region of India and China will be under water when sea levels rise two hundred years. I knew that there can be severe effects of climate change but I was more interested in how it plays into history. About a week before starting this project I was taking a practice ACT and read about the Little Ice Age and its effects in Europe. I was instantly hooked and didn't know that climate actually has an impact on history.
     I started looking for other studies or climate related incidences that have changed the way people think and act. I found an article on the online Smithsonian Magazine(1) called "How Climate Change May Have Shaped Human Evolution". My first though was that this is kind of on the science side but I decided to read it anyways. Brian Handwerk, the author, found out that three million years ago Africa's climate dried out and it turned into mainly grasslands. He and many others suspects that this was the cause for humans to evolve from being climbers to walkers. Other studies have shown that brain size of humans have increased each time there was a major change in the climate. The first member of the human race commonly known as "Lucy" used simple tools to hunt and gather. As the climate went under drastic changes the second generations of the human race evolved to developing more complex tool like a double bladed axe. A researcher named Maslin believes that hominins' brains may have expanded when the lakes varied. He says that the hominins had to think about where and how there next meal would be provided.
     After reading this short article I was amazed. I knew that humans had evolved and have been told that it was due to Darwinism, but this gave me a whole other explanation that fascinated me. I wanted to find more articles like this but with the opinions of historians. I kept looking and looking but ended up finding very little that was actually helpful to me. I decided that I would go back to the Little Ice Age. This was something that some people were familiar with and that historians did look into this period of climate change.
     The Little Ice Age occurred in the early fourteenth century all the way to the mid-nineteenth century. It followed after a medieval warming period (900-1300). Encyclopedia Britannica(2) told me that there were droughts, increased perception, and extreme moisture swings. Northern Europe had long winters and  short and wet summers while Southern Europe experienced droughts and season-long periods of heavy rainfall. The clod temperatures led to crop failures and famines while the North Atlantic Fisheries declined as the ocean temperatures fell. This information was a little better but there was no mention of historians point of views.
     My search continued on and I found just what I was looking for. History.com(3) had an article of the Little Ice Age and its consequences. It started of talking about the great famines because of the cold weather and how it killed most crops. Some historians believed that the Black Death outbreak was linked to food shortages and the weakened immune systems due to starvation. The Manchu Conquest happened because peasants rose up when they were unable to pay taxes. The list goes on to witch hunts, the Thirty Years War, the Rise of the Potato, French Revolution, creation of "Frankenstein", invention of the bicycle and the midwestern population expansion. All of these were talked about in the article but still there were few opinions from historians.
     My teacher found this article about historians and climate and sent it to me from the American Historical Association(4). Historians don't really talk about the climate because most of them feel like it is a scientific topic, but most scientists have found cyclic patterns of warming and cooling periods. Today we have most of the information needed to help prevent or prepare for the major catastrophe that is about to happen but the information is in small pieces. Historians and scientists don't collaborate often and that is what is part of the cause for the word climate to be a controversial topic. Sam White the author of "Historians and Climate Change" says that historians need to be more resourceful. Historians like documents they can read an analyze but there are very few documents written on the effects of the climate. There are several studies but as I said before historians and scientists don't normally work together. White says that one way historians could be more resourceful is to obviously collaborate with scientists but to also talk to people who specialize in a certain climate. Like for example agrarians rely heavily on the climate and when it shifts they either wait or have to adapt. White also claims that climate reconstruction benefit from written observations by historians and geographers. He says "the climate is always changing and there is no point in waiting for it to end before writing its history". He makes a good point by saying that the only way to learn about climate change is to start studying what we know.
     Overall right now there is enough information but the thing that holds us back is the lack of collaboration.



Footnotes
(1)"Smithsonian magazine and Smithsonian.com place a Smithsonian lens on the world, looking at the topics and subject matters researched, studied and exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution -- science, history, art, popular culture and innovation -- and chronicling them every day for our diverse readership."
(2)"we provide timely, relevant, and trustworthy information and instructional products for homes, schools, universities, libraries, and workplaces around the world"

(3)The History Channel is a basic American cable TV channel that originally broadcasted documentaries and historical fiction series. The network receives frequent criticism from scientists, historians, and skeptics for broadcasting pseudo-documentaries such as "Ancient Aliens" or "UFO Hunters"

(4)"The American Historical Association (AHA) is the largest professional organization in the United States devoted to the study and promotion of history and historical thinking. Only the AHA brings together historians from all specializations and professions, embracing their breadth, variety, and ever-changing activity."

(5) Mr. Rainey is the head of Randolph School which is one of the most prestigious private schools in the south. He is a very educated man and can talk about anything.