A mini-Ice Age approaches. Glaciers grow. Every year, the sea freezes earlier and thaws later. A settlement in northern Greenland is abandoned. A character refers to the Fimbul Winter. (p. 182)
Weather is clear and cold. The sun far to the south merely glances across sea and land before sinking back. Steely blue icebergs move through gray water. Sheet ice forms. Skimming fulmars cry faintly. Snow covers shingle. Sedna must be compelled to release seals. (p. 193)
Again, the characters converse but for now my attention is on the scenery which indeed merits our attention and would usually be quickly forgotten if not recorded.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have read that at its height the Little Ice Age was so cold the Thames froze solid in winter and bonfires could be lit on top.
Ad astra! Sean
I often wonder if global temperatures wouldn't have been slowly declining toward the next glacial period over the last two centuries if not for the industrial revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
Kaor, Jim!
It's possible, absent the Industrial Revolution, we might have been entering a long lasting Ice Age by now. And that would have been a catastrophe for the human race!
You reminded me of FALLEN ANGELS, a novel by Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and Michael Flynn. Set roughly about now when an Ice Age did come upon us, and how foolish, counterproductive, and anti-scientific policies in all the major nations made matters far worse.
FALLEN ANGELS is also an affectionate homage to SF fans and writers.
Ad astra! Sean
Though it looks like glacial periods commence over millennia rather than the decades shown in FALLEN ANGELS. Even if temperature dropped quite quickly it would take millennia for the continental ice sheets to thicken to the kilometer range. My speculation is that without the fossil fuel burning we would experience temperature slightly colder than we had at about 1700, with continuing slow temperature drop.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree, we have to expect most glacial eras to need centuries/millennia before continental ice sheets to thicken that much. What I recall is that the authors of FALLEN ANGELS hypothesized that something called the Mauder Minimum reduced radiation from the Sun so drastically that the Earth became colder more quickly than would otherwise have happened.
Ad astra! Sean
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