QUESTION: Is it in your view
a minor cold blip or “OMG we’re all going to freeze to death and run out of
food ?”
BR
ANSWER: We are looking at
an unbelievable decline in the energy output of the sun which appears to be the
most rapid decline in nearly 10,000 years. The Global Warming crowd may be
setting society up for mass famine and death because they are deliberately
pointing everyone in the opposite direction to get their portion of the $1
billion grants. Natural disasters are the most disastrous when the energy
output of the sun declines. There has been a fatal interaction of ecological,
agricultural, economic, and political factors that seem to be setting the stage
for at least a repeat of what is known as the Great Famine of 1315-1317. The
Great Famine started with bad weather in spring 1315. Crop failures lasted
through 1316 until the summer harvest in 1317, and Europe did not fully recover
until 1322. The period was marked by extreme levels of crime, disease, mass
death and even cannibalism and infanticide. The crisis set in motion the great
economic collapse that began during the fourteenth century. In our arrogance,
we seem to believe we have conquered every aspect of the planet and many argue
we can even alter the climate of the planet.
The
collapse from the Medieval Warm period was rapid, but also deadly. When the
climate turned down, what followed was suddenly bitter cold winters and
drenching rains which then froze. Europe had expanded as the society always
does in warm periods. A study has shown that desert rodent populations of
many species tend to “fluctuate synchronously owing to pulses of primary
production and seed availability during rainy years, and reduced seed
production during droughts” (PLOS 2013).
I have
reported that plagues correlate to the decline in temperature. During the 14th
century, there were warnings in the form of rumors that told of a great plague
in China and India that killed most of the populations there. The plague made
its way to Europe when the Kipchak forces were besieging the Genoese trading
post in the Crimea (Ukraine). The Kipchaks began to catapult plague-infested
corpses over the walls and into the trading post. The disease spread quickly and
the Genoese abandoned the outpost. They sailed back to Europe stopping in
Sicily in 1347 taking the Black Death with them.
Four centuries of global warming left Europe with mild
temperatures, which were the highest in 8,000 years. This led to the great economic
expansion and the rebirth of trade and the economy. In fact, gold began to
reappear in the coinage after about 600 years. This was the Great Medieval
Warming period that marked the rebirth of civilization following the fall of
the Roman Empire. The European continent’s farmers expanded agriculture and
planted crops on vast quantities of land previously unsuitable for agriculture.
This led to the increased food supply which, like desert rodents, fueled a
population explosion that tripled the number of people in medieval Europe.
First, we have the sharp decline in weather. This resulted in
those marginal lands that had been cultivated ceasing to produce crops as
frosts and floods dominated the climate. Millions of extra mouths had to be fed
and many died from the famine. Rebellions and civil wars emerged and this, in
turn, exacerbated the crisis. Then the terrible weather turned deadly and
the first disease began to appear in the livestock. Two consecutive harvest
failures in 1314 and 1315 launched seven years of famine, resulting in the
deaths of between 5% and 12% of the population of northern Europe.
Yes, there have been famines caused by mankind. The worst in
history remains that which occurred during the 20th century. This was the
Russian famine created by Communism. Stalin’s forced collectivization program
starved to death some 5 million Russians. Stalin took the food from Ukraine for
Russia resulting in another 8 million Ukrainian deaths. Some 25 million Chinese
died of hunger as a consequence of Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which also
completely failed when bureaucrats try to run things from a central government
perspective. Both of these modern famines were the result of
Socialism/Communism taking the control away from the individual and handing it to
bureaucrats in the central office.
My
concern here is the correlations of pandemics to the decline in the energy
output of the sun. That decline from the Medieval Warming Period set in motion
what many call the Little Ice Age. Even after the extreme low, Europe is
rapidly turning colder much faster than expected in what we would call
technically a retest of the lows. That sharp decline was a real global cooling
period for Europe known as the Deep Freeze of 1709. In the first few
months of 1709 remained in a deep freeze that again wiped out food supplies.
People were ice-skating on the canals of Venice, which against was highly
unusual to see such cold that far south on the water. People could cross the
Baltic Sea on horseback because it was completely frozen! You could not ring a
church bell because it would shatter it was that cold.
Therefore, to answer the question do we face an OMG event with
famine? The answer is yes! The worst of this may come during the 2020-2024
period. I have reported that it appears the next 8.6-year wave on the ECM maybe
setting up for a rally in commodities. That will include food.