Missing News: Little Ice Age

"Vikings arrived in Greenland in the 980s, during a warm period like the present."

ABC seem to have a problem reporting on studies that support natural climate variability. According to prevailing ABC Groupthink, climate change is all man made and it's all due to CO2. It's no surprise then that ABC have not covered a recent study that finds a cold snap in Greenland in the 12th century may help explain why Viking settlers vanished from the island. Thankfully Reuters thought it was newsworthy:

Greenland cold snap linked to Viking disappearance
(Reuters) - A cold snap in Greenland in the 12th century may help explain why Viking settlers vanished from the island, scientists said on Monday.
The report, reconstructing temperatures by examining lake sediment cores in west Greenland dating back 5,600 years, also indicated that earlier, pre-historic settlers also had to contend with vicious swings in climate on icy Greenland.
"Climate played (a) big role in Vikings' disappearance from Greenland," Brown University in the United States said in a statement of a finding that average temperatures plunged 4 degrees Celsius (7F) in 80 years from about 1100.
Such a shift is roughly the equivalent of the current average temperatures in Edinburgh, Scotland, tumbling to match those in Reykjavik, Iceland. It would be a huge setback to crop and livestock production.

LITTLE ICE AGE
Scientists have previously suspected that a cooling toward a "Little Ice Age" from the 1400s gradually shortened growing seasons and added to sea ice that hampered sailing links with Iceland or the Nordic nations.
The study, by scientists in the United States and Britain, added the previously unknown 12th century temperature plunge as a possible trigger for the colonies' demise. Vikings arrived in Greenland in the 980s, during a warm period like the present.

Read the whole article via the link above...

H/T MB