Gibbon on global warming

Powerline Blog ^ | 29 July 2006 | Scott Johnson

[shrinkermd]

Gibbon on global warming

Yale University Professor Charles Hill is one of the Yale faculty's notable polymaths. Before joining the Yale faculty as diplomat in residence and lecturer in international politics, he seems to have been everywhere and done everything. His former student Molly Worthen titled her biography of Professor Hill The Man On Whom Nothing Was Lost (a book we wrote about here, here and here).

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal carried a letter to the editor by Professor Hill responding to a Journal editorial on global warming hokum:

"The fact that the earth's climate changes in cycles from warm to cold to warm, etc. ("Hockey Stick Hokum," editorial page, July 14) was noted in the late 18th century by Edward Gibbon in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire": "The reindeer, that useful animal, is of a constitution that supports, and even requires, the most intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia; but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any country south of the Baltic." In the time of Caesar, Mr. Gibbon wrote, the reindeer was native to the forests of Germany and Poland, but in Gibbon's time the animal was nowhere to be seen in those parts. And between the Age of Caesar and the Age of Gibbon, the Medieval Warming Period and the "Little Ice Age" had taken place."

Charles Hill New Haven, Conn.

Posted by Scott at 06:08 AM | Permalink

[shrinkermd]

Reindeer roamed where grapes now grow.

[Bob]

Reindeer roamed where grapes now grow.

That wouldn't have happened if the reindeer hadn't been driving all of those gas-guzzling SUVs.

[laotzu]

Global warming is caused by the big tobacco industrial complex.

I blame the native American indians, who introduced the scurge on humanity....or, at least, Ward Churchill.

[maine-iac7]

I blame the native American indians, who introduced the scurge on humanity....or, at least, Ward Churchill.

Ahhh - Churchill is NOT Native American - just another one of his lies...the better to get preferential hiring

[laotzu]

Churchill is NOT Native American

Blame him anyway.

[MNJohnnie]

Reindeer farts cause global warming! All the experts agree! Thats just an Inconvenient Truth the Capitalists in denial refuse to admit!

[HighlyOpinionated]

This is SO timely for me, personally. I have been arguing "Global Warming" and the "movie" "An Inconvenient Truth" with two egroups. One person went so far as to call me ignorant.

So this quote got sent to both egroups.

Not that I expect any apologies. Being vindicated from the eighteenth century is enough. I don't recall reading The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire while in school, but I may have read excerpts. Those years are a bit of a blur due to lack of memory recall.

I do like being correct though (whether I'm 'right' or not!)

[InABunkerUnderSF]

The climate change observation was just a sidebar. Old Eddie was really blaming the fall of the Roman Empire on the rise of Christianity.

Gibbon, good 18th century disestablismentarian that he was, never figured out that what really did in the Roman Empire was illegal immigration. He points out that Septimius Severus abandoned the string of border forts call the Limes to save money and free up troops for his war in Mesopotamia but he never connects that fact to the large scale movement of people from Germany into Gaul. From then on the decline was irreversible.

[SunkenCiv]

Roman Germany keyword topics, from the FRchives:

• The Romans in Ireland
• Buddha statue from 6th c found in Viking hoard in Helgo, Sweden
• Gibbon on global warming [Limes in #8]
• Graves Hint At Contact With Romans (Sweden)
• Crystal Amulet Poses Question On Early Christianity (Denmark - 100AD)
• Report: Ancient Roman graveyard found in suburban Copenhagen
• Ancient Roman battlefield excavated in Lower Saxony [Germany]
• Gold-plated Roman horse head found (near Frankfurt) [Limes in #6]
• 2,000-year-old statue of Emperor Augustus on horseback found in stream
• Near Army construction site in Germany, a trove of ancient Roman artifacts
• New finds suggest Romans won big North Germany battle [ Maximinus Thrax ]
• Students find rare Roman temple on practice dig [Poppelsdorf, Germany]
• German battlefield yields Roman surprises
• New Iron Age Sites Discovered in Finland [Roman era]
• Ancient Roman Military Camp Unearthed in Eastern Germany
• Hitting the jackpot on a dig in Gernsheim: Long lost Roman fort discovered
• Archaeologists discover 'Roman Village' in Gernsheim

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 7/29/2006. Thanks shrinkermd.

[chesley]

Not to mention legal immigration in excess.

[gleeaikin]

What was a major factor in the failure of Rome was slave and serf based agriculture with absentee ownership. With a dedicated yoeman stock of landowners, the immigrants would have not been able to control the land.