TPO 27

In this set of materials, the reading and lecture discuss possible reasons that would cause the little ice age. Although the passage provides three theories about the possible causes for occurring the little ice age, the speaker refutes them through several reasons, which I will describe in this report.

First, the passage points out that after warming the weather, the glaciers of the Gulf Stream was melted, which sent a large amount of cold freshwater into it, and it may reduce the temperature. The lecturer, in contrast, rejects this by claiming that cold freshwater was entered only to North American. But the little ice age was happening in the southern hemisphere like Newland and Africa that could not be affected by the Gulf Stream. Therefore, the Gulf Stream disruption is not a good reason for the little ice age occurrence.

Furthermore, the reading passage states that volcanic eruptions may have caused a little ice age by sending a lot of dust into the atmosphere, which blocks sunlight from reaching Earth's surface. However, the professor argues that a lot of dust can prevent sunlight. He adds that a lot of dust has other visual effects, such as colorful sunlight or dark or brown snow. But, we do not have any reports about these effects. So, the amount of dust was not enough for causing the little ice age.

Finally, although the passage says that by decreasing human population, the number of trees was increased, and the amount of carbon dioxide was increasing by trees, and made the earth cooler. The speaker disagrees by mentioning that the human population grew rapidly after a short time, and people cut trees out for making lands appropriate for agriculture very soon. Thus there was not enough time for the forests to have any effect on the climate and cause the little ice age.