Climate

Climate a factor which varies considerably (from Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strands, as the hymn puts it), and which largely determines what foods can be grown where.

A change in climate may have consequences so severe as to destroy entire communities. A classic example is the Viking colony in Greenland, set up in the 11th century when the average temperature there was high enough for the growing of barley and the grazing of cattle. In the 1370s the temperature fell steeply and the colony, unable to adapt to the changed conditions, collapsed. The original inhabitants, the Inuit, who lived by hunting and fishing, were much less affected by the cooling climate and have continued to live in Greenland.