Medeival Warm Period: a Time of Productivity and Prosperity?

Question

Some people seem to think it was a good time globally. What was it like? Does the MWP give us reason for comfort, or perhaps even a reason to seek out warmer temperatures?

Answer 1

I think this is your question: Why do people think the MWP disproves current warming? They are not thinking logically. AGW believers are not trying to say there was never a warming period in the past, its just that the question of the current warming is "is it natural?".

So... I guess people tend to think all because there was a warming period in the past which occurred naturally, the current warming should be natural too.

Answer 2

Interestingly enough, I was watching a history professor (not sure his name) go through the different periods of the last 2,000 years. He did mention that the human population exploded during the Medieval Warm period (he attributed some of this to the climate, but mentioned technology also). He also pointed out that during the colder Little Ice Age, humans had a very difficult time, and diseases spread (totally opposite what the AGW loonies say today).

The problem with today's AGW acolytes is they do not really care about the environment. They care about political power and AGW gives them an excuse to tax and control free people. Because of this, they have been trying to down play or eliminate the Medieval Warm Period (Mann's debunked Hockey Stick). Unfortunately for them, the facts have been difficult for them to erase, and the truth continues to seep through.

Answer 3

It might have been good for northern and central europe, but it would mean distaster and massive health crisis in the already warm areas of Africa and Southern Asia.

Answer 4

I learned much more than I knew just from the addendum's to the question.  

Perhaps the global warming is cyclical and not man made.

However, the crisis with the major oil producers showing billions of dollars in profits while gasoline and diesel costs are ruining businesses plus crippling the consumer is the real crisis.  The government should interfere by causing the prices of fuel to go down so that the producers are making a reasonable profit--say in the millions.  

I do not advocate socialism but the fuel industry in inviting a take over.  Billions of dollars in profit?  That is evil and sinful.

       I am praying that hybrid engines will so dominate the market that our dependence on Eastern Oil will either drastically lessen or disappear altogether.

Answer 5

I've read that the US west suffered severe prolonged droughts during that period.  We, in the US, definitely wouldn't consider that good for productivity.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 6

There are GW nut cases who want peer reviewed science that proves that the sun warms us.  Now, they will attack any time in history, like they tried to wipe the little ice age off the record books and manipulate the data that shows that CO2 is a result of global warming and not the cause.  So, you will not get a straight answer and most people that come here are already brainwashed, which is rather typical.  Most of them aren't old enough to remember the global cooling scare of the seventies and tout one degree in 100 years as catastrophic.  However, the temperature has changed at least one degree in 100 years since Earth began.  At the beginning the cycle was from 5000 degrees, down to minus 200.  So, if anything, our so-called greenhouse gases have attenuated the cycle and kept things running rather smoothly thus far.

Answer 7

If your talking about Phenology...yes it could be listed as such. But I think you would have to be more specific, as to what and where? They do use it as historical proxies and seems to be a rapidly growing area of science.

Answer 8

Dangit Ken, you stole my answer!  Well, I'm going to answer anyway.

In some locations during the MWP there were extensive droughts, sometimes termed 'megadroughts'.  One study concluded:

"There is evidence for widespread hydrological anomalies from 900 to 1300 A.D. Prolonged droughts affected many parts of the western United States (especially eastern California and the western Great Basin) (14). Other parts of the world also experienced persistent hydrological anomalies (15)."

"A repetition of such anomalies today, with more than 10 times as many people on Earth as in High Medieval time, could be catastrophic."

Answer 9

You might be interested in this link. Some global warming skeptics made a film called "The Global Warming Swindle". Not long after another group of scientists put together "The Global Warming Swindle Swindle".  It would appear that global average temperatures are already higher than during the medieval period.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/g...