The Causes and Consequences of the Little Ice Age Energy Revolution

Global warming is a consequence of the industrial revolution, and this project proposes that global cooling was one of its causes. Building on recent interpretations of the industrial revolution that emphasise the rising use of cheap coal in preindustrial England, we propose that this early ‘energy transition’ was a solution to a long-term trend of global cooling. We thus aim to integrate climate and energy feedbacks in this specific case, and explore, how it relates to the relief from ‘Malthusian’ land constraints, compared with trade, fisheries, and the agricultural revolution and how its effects on relative prices intersects with the consumer and ‘industrious’ revolutions, and urban wage levels. To reach this goal we will apply top-down climate modelling approaches as well as bottom-up empirical investigation. The latter includes process analysis to determine the embedded energy and/or land content of major consumer, industrial and traded goods. The respective organic and mineral energy content will then be used to compare the actual situation (with fossil fuels) with a counterfactual simulation (without fossil fuels). Finally, we will use models on biotic climate regulation to argue that the energy transition can be regarded as a stabilising response to long-term global cooling. The project will take place over four years and will involve one PhD student.