Global Warming? If we had only had TV from 1645 to 1715!

Our international instantaneous information flow lets us see mining collapses, earthquakes, floods, wars, disasters of all kinds, and really scary weather in the present moment. The idea of global warming gets media help by showing glaciers and lonely polar bears.

But what if we had TV back in the 1600's? What would the coverage be like then? The world experienced the "Maunder Minimum" back then, a "little ice age", for lack of a better term, that lasted until about 1715, beginning in around 1645, but with strong cold snaps even earlier. But back then, they did not know it was the Maunder Minimum. They did not know it would end in 1715. Imagine how the world might be affected if we had had nightly TV and weather reports from around the world. Imagine modern forecasts with little headlines displayed on the screen as you watched in cold comfort. Read this short fable and follow all the news that was fit to print at the time.

"The Rhine has been frozen until July, this year..."

"In 1622, the Bosporus froze over in the winter..."

"Sled rides across the frozen Baltic have enabled travelers to cross over from Poland to Sweden with seasonal inns along the way..."

"The first colony in the Massachusetts area is suffering from the intense cold, poor farming characteristics. Local Indians show Pilgrims how to bury fish in the sand to get crops to grow..."

"Northwest Germany is so devastated that tens of thousands try to emigrate to England to try to resettle..."

"Inuit peoples approach Scotland on trips around ice in Northern Atlantic..."

"Growing glaciers force Swiss villages into depopulation..."

"Lake Superior has ice into the summer..."

"Famine and hardship affect populations in all the continents..."

The weekly and nightly headlines from around the world put the people of the 1600's into apoplexy. Because they are aware of all of the news from around the globe, they develop powerful opinions about the future. Most see a New Ice Age coming in the 17 and 1800's. Many question whether this is a punishment. Many say they don't think the coming Ice Age is imminent.

The Fear of a New Ice Age Builds in International Frenzy

These would be fantastic headlines for the media weary populace. End of the world scenarios would be drawn as authorities and scientists form coalitions trying to predict just how bad our winters are going to get and whether we are going to go into a New Ice Age.

Religious Authors print books about the New Ice Age and the theological implications of such a state. 80 year old preachers rise to their pulpits and declare with stentorian thunder about how this New Ice Age is a warning from God and that everyone who is not in their Church should promptly repent. Special super-heated promises of angelic rapture are laid out through new visions from frightened theologians. The Pope declares that Catholics should feel free to move to the southern climes, as there is no need to fear a collapse of their church because so many Roman Catholics already live in the southern and tropical regions.

New Age authors and writers channel statements which outline how many will perish during the New Ice Age, but then it will reverse itself with new sun spot activity and the human population will be preserved, renewed through special insight, as more and more people are channeling agent spirits who have been through these things before.

Governments begin to make preparations for moving populations from the North to the South. New crops and methods begin to be proposed. Hunters are commissioned to go an kill all the bears in the wild to make warmer clothing. Plans for increasing the sheep population are accelerated for greater sources of wool. Plans concerning moving to North America are prohibited because people will probably die in transit or perish from famine and hardship if they get there. The New World is a costly and harsh world. People decide to prepare to huddle together during the long winters and short summers that are feared to come. Plans to move to the South of each country are formalized. War plans are secretly drawn up by countries in the northern climes to invade the South.

New Taxes No Dreams

Expansive economic activity is not encouraged, and marginal innovation is discouraged as being foolhardy and a waste of money. Dreams of strange inventions are absolutely forbidden. New taxes for governments are levied because of the tremendous cost that accommodating the freezing population is going to mean to the government. There are even speeches made by government officials that psychics have said that if we pay enough taxes that the divine will see our willingness to listen to supernatural messages. The message is that these taxes will turn away the coming Ice Age.

A Senator from a southern country in Europe has declared that if people pay enough taxes to his government that he will let anyone who wants to come to his country because it is "so darned warm here that we can take anybody who is willing to pay". He lives in a big white mansion and says that the people coming to his country will not be able to have big white warm mansions, but they will be able to live in big white warm projects.

A Real Nut Prophecies an Age of Warming That Ends in an Ice Age in the 21st Century

One philosopher scientist, a woman, is called a Real Nut by practically everyone who is smart. These people say they are smart because they are smart. And smart people know if they are smart. She sees the current activity as the height of the Cold, and that a new coming 300 year period of warm comfortable weather is going to bring on an age of invention, agricultural innovation, population growth, culminating in an age of air travel and a trip to the Moon. She is widely criticized as a crank and a hopeless optimist. She even lives in a really cold place, just to make her point. When she finally declares that a new low period of sun spot activity will make the 21st century a much colder place, she is accused of being demon possessed and brought up on charges for being a False Prophet. So not only is she not smart, but she has no virtue whatsoever as a False Prophet. Somehow she is not discouraged, but the smart people eventually jail her. Everyone praised the smart people for jailing her.  There were no people who claimed to be smart who thought that she had any good qualities. Her family goes into the jail with her to keep her company.

A Wise King Makes A Proclamation

The world's population is a continuing state of real unrest. Leaders are fearing revolutions. Then, a Wise King from one country cuts off all the TV broadcasts. People begin to cease fearing the New Ice Age. They only observe their weather and realize things are not as bad as they thought they were. The Wise King is assassinated by TV Power Brokers, but the Wise King's brothers are re-elected, in a sudden move toward a "royal democracy". The Media Power Brokers write new resumes and move "out of Dodge".

A New Preacher

However, as the 1600's progress, a new religious prophet comes on the scene and he gets broadcast on the remaining TV channels that are still talking about the bad weather in different cities. Because he has such a New Positive Gospel, he is endorsed by the governments, as civil unrest is increasing and people are crying out for new taxes that will certainly solve the weather problem. The new taxes that people are crying out for are causing the government problems because no one really believes that paying taxes is going to stop the New Ice Age. They want some real answers fast!

The new preacher says that someday this period will be called "The Maunder Minimum". This will be a period of low sun spot activity and that a new Ice Age is not on our doorstep. Like the Real Nut, from a few years ago, he sees a period of warming coming. In fact he makes an astounding prophetic pronouncement. He declares before the world:

"It is going to be so warm and comfortable in the next 300 years that people will forget that ice ages are even possible. Everyone will think that it is so warm that mankind himself actually causes the warmth.   Isn't that funny?   Anyway, we will have very wealthy economies and vast power and industry will mean that incredible amounts of money will be able to be wasted.  It is just when people are about to spend billions on changing their economies and paying taxes to the authorities, that a new Minimum will come upon us.  But this time they won't name it after Mr. Maunder, they will name it after some other scientist.  Then, things will get cold again.  Then, people will start to fear a New Ice Age, but not until they overcome their delusion about their "New Hot Age".

Christofer French is the Founder of Astrologygetalong.com and is a student of the cyclic nature of our planets activity and earth's population changes.