February 28, 2006

CRANK UP THE HUSQVARNA (via Rick Turley):

Europe's chill linked to disease (Kate Ravilious, 2/28/06, BBC)

Europe's "Little Ice Age" may have been triggered by the 14th Century Black Death plague, according to a new study.

Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This would have had the effect of cooling the climate, a team from Utrecht University, Netherlands, says.


Be the first on your block to buy our new bumper sticker: "Arbor Day is murder"

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 28, 2006 6:08 PM
Comments

Reagan was right. Trees are the culprits.

Posted by: erp at February 28, 2006 6:19 PM

Some more:

"Reforestation is Murder"

"Gaia (heart) Weyehauser"

"Think Globally Clearcut Locally"

"I'm a Lumberjack, and I'm Saving the Earth, Okay?"

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at February 28, 2006 6:44 PM

"Friends Don't Let Friends Plant Trees."

Posted by: John Resnick at February 28, 2006 6:49 PM

"Where are the Jurassic beavers when you need them?"

Posted by: oj at February 28, 2006 6:49 PM

I'm a tree lover. I like to cut em down and burn em to keep warm.

Posted by: AllenS at February 28, 2006 7:03 PM

Sadly, someone seems to have forgotten that things began cool off as early as 1310, when Europe experienced a several years of disastrously cold winters, cold and very wet summers, and consequent famine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1315-1317

Perhaps the post-plague reforestation accelerated the process of cooling after 1350, but it was already well decades earlier.

Posted by: H.D. Miller at February 28, 2006 8:09 PM

Not only is the story wrong chronologically, it's wrong physically. A halving of global carbon dioxide wouldn't affect the temperature more than a few hundredths of a degree; reforestation of Europe probably wouldn't cut global carbon dioxide by more than a few percent.

But if it were right, shouldn't the bumper stickers read, "Murder is Arbor Day"?

Posted by: pj at March 1, 2006 1:13 AM

Hasn't the United States become significantly more forested in the last hundred years as well?

Posted by: Rich at March 3, 2006 3:19 PM
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