When Climate Change Starved the World: The Little Ice Age

The Great Famine of 1315 to 1317 was one of the most extreme crises to hit northern Europe .

Britain , Scandinavia , the Low Countries, Poland and Germany were hit worst, but every place north of the Alps felt at least some impact.

The Little Ice Age gave a small push to a chain of events that will dethrone a king.

While the changing climate did not directly cause many historical events, it would be a key factor in historical events.

One society the Little Ice Age directly destroyed were the Norse colonies on Greenland , settled in 985 CE during the Viking expansion.

Norse colonists had lived in Greenland for four centuries , hunting walrus for the valuable ivory prized in Europe .

But as the climate began to cool, the lifeline between Greenland and Scandinavia became more tenuous.

By 1400 , sea ice had melted, making it difficult to import food or export walrus ivory to Europe .

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