Crazy From The Heat

A news story I read this morning reported that "the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years." Disturbing, yes, but put into its proper historical context, even more so.

That would make it warmer than its been since the seventeenth century, which gave us the witch hunts of Europe and New England. The "Burning Time," as it came to be known, targeted women and the poor in particular. Historians estimate tens to hundreds of thousands were killed, tortured and otherwise maligned in the name of cultural conformity based on weak interpretations of Christian doctrine.

The seventeenth century also brought the institutionalization of the slave trade, which made racial victims of, as historian Ira Berlin refers to them, the "many thousands gone." The slave trade was ultimately a necessity of a nascent consumer society which was more preoccupied with materialism than morality.

The seventeenth century also saw an unprecedented consolidation of wealth and power in the English imperial system, complete with poor laws against vagabondage and begging, and the institutionalization of torture and capital punishment as forms of state-sanctioned terror against those who dared to challenge the theft of the "common wealth."

Given this historical context, I am more against global warming than I ever have been, since I see many of the same patterns in the news headlines of today. The connection between temperature and social, political and economic repression may be a bit specious, but ultimately warrants a reconsideration of the always good advice to "chill out."