Global Crisis

This insightful book explores the catastrophic events of the mid-seventeenth century, linking them to climate change and raising awareness of current challenges. Global Crisis offers valuable historical context.

First published in 2013, Geoffrey Parker’s prize-winning work, Global Crisis, delves into the unprecedented calamities that struck the mid-seventeenth-century world. This period was marked by revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, and regicides, which collectively devastated societies and claimed up to one-third of the global population. Parker attributes these disasters to climate change, providing a detailed examination of firsthand accounts and prevailing weather patterns during the 1640s and 1650s. He highlights the longer, harsher winters and cooler, wetter summers that disrupted growing seasons, leading to malnutrition, disease, and increased mortality rates.

In this new abridged edition, the extensive research of the original text is distilled for a wider audience while maintaining Parker’s remarkable historical insights. Global Crisis emphasizes the crucial link between climate change and global catastrophe that occurred 350 years ago, making it relevant to contemporary discussions. The book not only recounts historical events but also poses critical questions about our preparedness for similar challenges in the future.

This user-friendly version is approximately half the length of the original, making it suitable for students and general readers alike. It serves as an accessible introduction to the key issues surrounding climate change and its potential impacts, inviting readers to reflect on the lessons of the past and consider the implications for our present and future.