Extreme Climate and Weather Related Events Prior to
Significant Anthropogenic Fossil Fuel Consumption
(A Partial Listing)
For years now we have been told that due to mankind’s addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and presumed resultant warming of the atmosphere, the Earth would be subject to increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. This was certainly demonstrated in An Inconvenient Truth as Al Gore stands in front of a NASA image of Hurricane Katrina, with the obvious implication that the storm was our fault. Now, while the storm itself was an entirely natural occurrence, the degree of devastation wrought upon the city of New Orleans was indeed the result of human ineptitude, or was at the least substantially aggravated by human action, as exemplified in Government response on all levels, before, during and after the actual onset of the storm itself. But that is a story for another place. Here I intend only to address the question of intensity and frequency of weather events before they could be blamed upon any meaningful anthropogenic increase of CO2 to the atmosphere. So, to that end I have compiled a broad sample of events in the several centuries leading up to a point prior to any belief that the planet was warming due to the burning of fossil fuels, placed somewhat arbitrarily at 1965. I could have come closer to the present, up to the 1980s for example, but I wanted to stay well short of the advent of global warming dogma in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Another thing is, I could have added many more events than the ones listed here but I think there are enough that any unprejudiced reader will get the point. Suffice it to say that extreme weather and climate change events have occurred on all timescales throughout the history of the Earth. Here I am listing only those events that are a part of the human-scale experience of recent history. Please read through the list carefully to gain a realistic context for understanding the claim that some contemporary flood, storm, hurricane or drought is anthropogenically caused and unprecedented. Whatever may or may not be true regarding the global warming creed, it is certainly not true that the last several decades have seen an increase in either the severity or frequency of weather or climate-related events. In fact, a considerable amount of evidence points in the opposite direction.
I provide most of my sources at the end of the list.
Extreme cyclonic storm, Dartmoor England – Oct. 21, 1638: Violent tornado-like storm throwing fireballs demolishes a church while in service, killing about 50 parishioners, spawns legends attributing the freak storm to the devil.
Extreme hurricane strikes Guadeloupe – Aug. 4, 1666. Six-foot-thick rock walls are smashed to rubble by gigantic sea wave, dozens of ships demolished and sunk, thousands drown.
Savage Atlantic hurricane – Nov. 1703: Pounds coastal England for fourteen days. Giant waves flood the Thames River, some 300 ships and 30,000 sailors are lost in the storm. Many ships are thrown up onto the land by the huge waves, thousands of casualties and drowned cattle.
Severe hurricane sinks Spanish flotilla off coast of Florida – July 31, 1715: Preceded by a strange mist that envelops the fleet, 100 mph winds destroy a Spanish fleet of 11 treasure-laden ships within five minutes, more than 1,000 men are killed.
Powerful cyclone, Bay of Bengal India – Oct. 7, 1737: Huge cyclone drives a 40-foot-high storm wave across densely populated land near mouth of Hooghly River, engulfing seaport, destroying 20,000 ships and drowning 300,000 people.
Devastating drought-induced famine in Hindustan, India – 1769-1770: No rain for a year-and-a-half wipes out entire province. 3,000,000 die of starvation and disease. When crops finally return no one remains to harvest them and they rot in the fields.
Powerful hurricane strikes North Carolina – Sept. 1-3, 1772: Eastern seaboard devastated under a massive hurricane, 15 large frigates ripped from their moorings and thrown inland for several miles.
Great hurricane, Caribbean –