Global Warming--Another Historical Perspective

From the combox at Ten Reasons:

Three hundred years ago, Swiss alpine peasants implored the then Bishop of Geneva Francis de Sales to travel to their villages in order to pray over the glaciers that were invading their pasture land.

Back then, Europe in general, and the Swiss in particular had a real environmental problem -a bitterly cold and unstable climate. These mountain glaciers were expanding at unprecedented speeds- sometimes 20 feet a year. Pasture lands, farms, and entire villages were engulfed or destroyed within a generation. To make matters even worse, during the summer melt, millions of gallons of ice cold water would pour from the tops of these glaciers killing everything in sight.

Francis de Sale's prayers worked. By 1800, most of the glaciers stopped expanding, and today they are gone. Archaeologists found many Roman artifacts, that lead one to believe that 1900 years ago, most of the Swiss Alps were glacier free. There are some mountain passes open that have been closed for a thousand years.

That was cooling, of course. So obviously, the SUV had not yet been invented.