The prolonged cooling that shaped European and global history for five centuries — and what a 0.5°C temperature drop can do to a civilization
Between roughly 1300 and 1850, the Earth cooled by approximately half a degree Celsius. That doesn't sound like much. It was enough to drive the Norse off Greenland, contribute to the famines that preceded the French Revolution, produce 'frost fairs' on the Thames, and reshape European civilization across five centuries.