With a Little Help from the Climate

The other night on the History Channel (that's right, folks, I am a nerd) I came into the middle of a program that seemed to be discussing how Stradivarius created such perfect violins. Upon watching the show further, I realized that they were hypothesizing that the Little Ice Age may have helped him in his work.

Sometime between the 15th and 19th centuries, the temperature in Europe, and potentially across the globe, was almost 1 degree celsius cooler than normal, which in turn made for some extremely harsh winters and colder, shorter summers. This colder climate made the trees grow slower, so that the space between the tree rings was smaller, thus making them more resonant in the violins (according to some).

This colder climate also killed much of the vineyards in Northern Europe, so instead of wine, they turned to their cereals and grains to make alcoholic beverages. As they emigrated to the United States, they brought their traditions along with them. Even today, more than 80% of the alcoholic beverages consumed in the USA is beer and hard liquor. Most of the wines are drunk on the coasts.

And finally, the Vikings who were renowned for their survival skills were killed off in Greenland (when they moved to Greenland, it really was green due to the Midieval Climate Optimum) because of the harsher winters and their lack of assuming the skills of the Inuits with whom they shared the frozen country.

It is interesting how the weather from hundreds of years ago has affected us even today, without us realizing it.