Sam White And Hubert Lamb Analysis

Sam white and Hubert Lamb clearly demonstrate the effect of climate variability on human society in their respective works, “A Companion to Glob (Lamb)al Environmental History” and “Climate, History and the Modern World”. Climate variability has been a constant factor in human history since before history was written down. Climate variability came in the form of hotter, and colder periods. Hotter periods often manifested themselves in droughts that negatively impacted or destroyed food production in affected areas. The destruction of a region’s food supply often led to economic instability, political turbulence in the form of rebellions, and the spread of diseases among famine-stricken populations. Colder periods caused regions to undergo …show more content…
The little ice age was period of cooler global climate, that led to several challenges to Iceland’s way of life. The first challenge came in the form of massive flooding that destroyed farmland throughout the country. Lamb writes, “there was a general drift from the farms towards the coast and an increasing activity in the fishing” (Lamb Pg 207). This change in Iceland demonstrates how drastic an effect climate variation can have on daily life. By moving to the coast, Icelanders must have been unable to produce enough food via inland farming, or at least farming alone. The that fact climate can impact communities to the point where they have to change their entire lifestyle in such a way, shows the possible impact climate can have. After all, if a little ice age can turn farmers into fishermen, then why can’t climate variation turn fishermen and farmers into hunter-gatherers? But this is not the only effect that climate variation had on Iceland. The little ice age is a period when the North Atlantic Ocean often froze throughout the year. Lamb writes, “The sea ice was tending to increase further and in the worst year, 1695, surrounded the country entirely so that no ships could come in for many months” (Lamb, Pg 207). This demonstrates climate variation’s ability to not just disrupt people’s mobility, but also render their technological advancements useless. Surely there are more technologically advanced vessels today than in 1695. But that is no guarantee that vessels today would be able to reach Iceland if it was once again surrounded by ice. This is a clear demonstration of how much humans rely on moderate weather to carry out simple, yet vital activities like ocean