Page 41 - American Survival Guide - October 2017

ADAPT OR DIE
It is possible to prepare for climate change—not by moving as the Vikings or Mongols
did (see the sidebar on the right)—but by preparing for the changing conditions. On the
simplest level, this means adequately ensuring your shelter will keep you warm in the winter
and relatively cool in the summer. While heat in the summer can be uncomfortable, cold in
the winter is a far bigger problem. ADAPTING
There is the argument that you can always put on more clothing to stay warm, because
the brutal truth is that cold actually kills far more people each year than extreme heat. TO CLIMATE
For any very cold outdoor excursions, several layers are required for comfort and safety.
This can present problems, not only in maintaining and cleaning what you wear, but also CHANGE:
in replacing it if commercial production of apparel and textiles has ceased.
Therefore, the best advice might be to move to a temperate climate (but, again, the LESSONS
danger of climate change is that what is ideal now may be far less so in the future).
Instead, it is necessary to prepare adequate and appropriate clothing for a long, cold FROM
winter and come up with a way to stay cool during long, hot summers. Shade helps in
the summer, and wooded areas obviously provide materials for burning wood in the
colder weather. But how long will that last? HISTORY

“Adapt or die” has been the unspoken motto
of human civilization for eons. One of the best
examples of this might be the Norsemen who
had settled Greenland—a land that once lived up
to its name as lush and “green,” only to suddenly
face a decade-long span of cold winters and
damp, cool summers. Known as “Vikings,” from
the Old Norse word meaning “voyaging,” these
were the fi rst Europeans to reach North America.
PHOTO: DYLAN KERELUK/CREATIVE COMMONS they also sailed east toward Russia and notably,
They sailed west during the Medieval Warm
Period, which ran from roughly 950 to 1250, but

south to France and other parts of Europe.
Because of this, Vikings have been described
as the fi rst climate-change “profi teers”: They
took advantage of warmer ocean currents
and generally more-inviting climates to be the
fi rst to settle areas other humans hadn’t.
But then came the Little Ice Age, which
‹ A reconstructed Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. The Vikings traveled
across the Atlantic during the Medieval Warm Period and, had it continued, they might have set lasted from around 1300 to 1850.
up permanent settlements.
The Viking settlers in Greenland had to adapt
from raising cattle, which had been brought from
Europe. In addition, they also found they were left
pretty much on their own: The cold weather meant
it was di cult to build trading ships to return to the
Old World. Instead, they had to become trappers
as trade collapsed, and new evidence shows that
they survived on seal meat more than cattle.
Just as the warming period was a catalyst
for the Vikings to sail in all directions, the
warmer weather also spurred another people,
far away in Asia, to get moving; these were the
Mongols, who had lived on the harsh steppes
of Central Asia for eons. The warmer weather
stimulated the growth of grasslands that fed
the Mongols’ herds of horses and livestock.
Now, in the case of the Mongols, it also took
the leadership of Genghis Khan, who was born
during this period, to motivate his hordes of
warriors. Nevertheless, the change of climate
‹ An example of adapting to climate change. This vineyard at Wyken Hall in Wales was planted most certainly played a signifi cant role.
in 1988 and is recognized for producing some of the best British wines. The British wine industry
has been helped by warmer summers.

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