The Little Ice Age, a period of clear cooling in the Northern Hemisphere from the 14th to the 17th century, mentioned in particular by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie in his
Human and Comparative History of the Climate
, is often taken as an example by climate skeptics to explain that the temperature on Earth can fluctuate according to natural events, and that we should therefore not worry about current warming.
But this conclusion is false, because the climatic episode actually seems to have been caused by human activity.
A study published March 5 in
Nature Communications
measured a drop in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, with a minimum in 1672, which may have caused this drop in temperatures.
According to the authors, the gradual decline in CO2 content that they record is compatible with the hypothesis of massive reforestation throughout America, which would have captured more carbon dioxide following the discovery of the New World in 1492. The expansion of…
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