Weather extremes? You think we have weather extremes? Have a look at this:

A Chronological Listing of Early Weather Events

By James A. Masurek (2010)

The chronology covers weather events from the years 0 to 1900 A.D.
[1] http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/weather.pdf (9.4 MB)
[2] http://www.breadandbutterscience.com

The following quotes from the chronology show just a few instances of warm weather when no one yet dreamed of “carbon” taxes, cap and trade or emission trading schemes to vacuum money out of our pockets:

582 A.D. In 582 in Western Europe, the heat of during the winter caused the trees to bloom in the month January. This month also was filled with violent rain, lightning and thunder.79 (Ibid. p. 20)

Winter of 583 / 584 A.D. The winter [in Europe] was of such persistent gentleness; that in the month of January one could see roses.62 (Ibid. p. 20)

In 584 the month of January in Western Europe produced roses. This was followed by a white frost, a hurricane and several disastrous incidents of hail that ravaged successive harvests of crops and vineyards. At the same time there was an excessive drought. The year produced almost no grapes. Desperate farmers delivered their vines at the mercy of the herds. But the trees, which had already borne fruit in July, producing a new crop in September, and some even bore again in December, and the vines offered at the same time well-formed clusters.79 (Ibid. p. 20)

586 A.D. [Because of the warm weather] in Western Europe the trees blossomed in the month of July 585 [586?], bloom again in September 586 and a large number of these who had already borne fruit produced a second crop of fruit until the Christmas holidays.79 (Ibid. p. 20)

However, just a few years later, this is what happened:

Winter of 603 / 604 A.D. In 604 in Scotland there was four months of frost, followed by dearth [famine]. The frost was also severe in England.47, 93

[In Europe] in 604, there was the most severe rigorous winter. The [grape] vines mostly died in all places. The Sea was frozen, and killed the fishes in it. This produced a great famine.72

The unusual cold of the year 603 in Western Europe killed much of the vineyards.79

(Ibid. p. 21)

Still, all of that was not so bad, compared to what happened just a few years later.

642 A.D. The winter in Europe was severe. The Black Sea was frozen. There were snowdrifts 90 feet (27 meters) deep.28 (Ibid. 22)

Still, things got worse:

Winter of 763 / 764 A.D. In the same year (763 A.D.), it was bitterly cold after the beginning of October, not only in our land, but even more so to the east, west, and north. Because of the cold, the north shore of the Black Sea froze to a depth of 30 cubits (~ 45 feet) a hundred miles out. This was so from Ninkhia to the Danube River, including the Kouphis, Dniester, and Dnieper Rivers, the Nekrophela, and the remaining promontories all the way to Mesembria and Medeia. Since the ice and snow kept on falling, its depth increased another twenty cubits (~ 30 feet), so that the sea became dry land. It was traveled by wild men and tame beasts from Khazaria, Bulgaria, and the lands of other adjacent people.

By divine command, during February of the same (764 A.D.) second indication the ice divided into a great number of mountainous chunks. The force of the wind brought them down to Daphnousia and Hieron, so that they came through the Bosporos to the city (Constantinople or Istanbul) and all the way to Propontis, Abydos, and the islands, filling every shore. We ourselves were an eyewitness and, with thirty companions, went out onto one of them and played on it. The icebergs had many dead animals, both wild and domestic, on them. Anyone who wanted to could travel unhindered on dry land from Sophianai to the city and from Chrysopolis to St. Mamas or Galata. One of these icebergs was dashed against the harbor of the acropolis, and shattered it. Another mammoth one smashed against the wall and badly shook it, so that the houses inside trembled along with it. It broke into three pieces, which girdled the city from Magnaura to the Bosporos, and was taller than the walls. All the city’s men, women, and children could not stop staring at the icebergs, then went back home lamenting and in tears, at a loss as to what to say about this phenomenon. (Theophanes the Confessor).3

Around Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), the two seas frozen.47, 93

In the winter of 762 A.D., the Dardanelles and Black Sea were frozen over, and snow drifted to an astonishing depth of 50 feet (15 meters).1 [misprint for 763 A.D.] (Ibid. p. 25)

Do you think that those wide swings from one extreme to another, from extreme heat to extreme cold in the space of a few years and even months could have been caused by fluctuations in industrial emissions of CO2, by wide and catastrophic variations in the numbers of SUVs that were manufactured and sold?

Weather extremes have always happened and will continue to happen. The only thing that will ensure our survival is to be prepared for when they happen. To cripple our economy through insane and futile attempts to regulate the climate when we are not even close to understanding how our climate functions is exactly the wrong thing to do. That will ensure nothing more than that when the need to adapt to weather extremes arises, we will have made sure that we do not have the means necessary by which to adapt.

Lemmings come to mind, and this is what lemmings do:

700 A.D. In England and Ireland, there was a famine and pestilence during three years, “so that men ate each other”.57, 91

In 700, our Saxon ancestors being yet heathens were plagued with such severe famine for three years together, that many died of hunger. And in Sussex, England many were so tormented with it, that sometimes groups of 40 people would get up on the rocks by the seaside and throw themselves down headlong into the sea and were drowned.72 (Ibid. p. 24)