Waterloo, The eruption of Tambora, and climate War

The soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte's troops they reset and the Duke of Wellington's busy checking their weapons to confront the "enemy" that morning in Waterloo, while the audience has also been prepared for unfriendly weather. They bring an umbrella and rain jacket for dealing with the expected rain will fall. The temperature is cold enough to bite, about 11 degrees Celsius, with wind speeds average 11 miles per hour from the west. It will be cloudy with sporadic rain.

Progress in modern-day weather forecasts for much help to the audience. They do not like the troops of Napoleon, Wellington's army moving facing hampered because of did not think the rain will wallop, 195 years ago.

It's the third week of June is less fair if it rains. In the post-war analysis, one of Napoleon's generals concluded that because the weather became one of their defeat at Waterloo. By the observer of the history of Napoleon, this conclusion is then related to other trigger factors that happened at that time, including the possible influence of gigantic eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa.

Two months before the Battle of Waterloo, April 1815, 2850-meter-high mountain that ejects 50 billion cubic meters of magma into the atmosphere. Violent volcanic eruptions throughout recorded history. The blast reaches a height of 43 kilometers and cause casualties up to 71 thousand people, directly or indirectly.

Then whether it was related to the eruption mahadahsyat indirectly with the Battle of Waterloo? Igan Sutawijaya, vulkanolog of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, which examines many of Mount Tambora, said, "The speed of spread the ashes of Tambora in 1815 was very fast around the earth, resulting in less than two months of ash has covered the continent of Europe."

Ash to collect in the northern hemisphere atmosphere. Consequences which are not perceived as the battle of Waterloo, but after that, starting in mid-1815 were gradually until a peak season, most felt when it came to farming (growing seasons) in 1816, which is usually shortened to half of the summer. Year 1816 came to be known as the year without a summer, especially in the northern hemisphere.

From the testimonies gathered by Clive Oppenheimer, an expert in geography from Cambridge University, noted that the rate of ice was still falling in North America in the summer. In Ireland the average temperature recorded that year three degrees lower than in previous years. Irregular rainfall and floods hit France. In the Netherlands, the land-the most fertile agricultural land inundated.

The relationship between the eruption of Mount Tambora and the Battle of Waterloo is thus not a direct effect, but are equally accelerated greatly since the disaster, famine, epidemics, and social unrest that hit Europe in 1816. The end of the Napoleonic wars series for nearly 17 years has been miserable not only the French, but also all European countries involved in war.

When Napoleon's battle for Europe is like the cause injuries, climate change triggered by the eruption of Mount Tambora as menggaraminya. Winters and rain thwart the prolonged time of wheat harvest, especially in Europe. The price of wheat craze, began to rise 50 percent in Poland, more than 250 percent in the UK, up 350 percent in France. Famine struck and rising unrest. In the UK public protests and looting. They carried banners that read "Bread or blood" and stormed the barn.

Epidemic typhus is usually associated with cold environments, damp and dirty gain ideal condition when it was so spread quickly. In Ireland alone recorded 800 thousand people contracted typhoid, not to mention other diseases such as dysentery.

If natural factors and conflicts accumulates in the period after the Napoleonic wars in the continent scale, chances are pretty much the same now present a global scale. Global climate change began to be identified by the experts interrelated with conflict situations. The statement addressed directly by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon said, "With a variety of social and political factors, the conflict in Darfur began as an ecological crisis, partly caused by climate change."

In his article in the Washington Post, Ban Ki-moon outlines since more than two decades ago, the average rainfall in southern Sudan has decreased by around 40 percent. Initially regarded as a natural phenomenon, and related to the temperature rise in the Indian Ocean that interfere with the seasonal rains. This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan African origin, to a certain extent, of global warming triggered by human activity.

It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the dry season. Until a few years ago, Arab nomadic pastoralists have been living peacefully with the settled farmers. They will welcome the shepherds when crossing farmland, grazing camels brushed velvet, and shared wells. But, as soon as the rain diminished, farmers fence off their land for fear of damage by livestock passing. For the first time in living memory, no longer enough food and water for all. In 2003 war broke out and developed into a tragedy that has claimed more than 200 thousand inhabitants.

In the future the situation caused by global climate change by some experts feared would lead to "the climate of conflict", even "climate of war." IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 2007 began to mention some areas that are vulnerable and sensitive to climate change impacts. In his fifth report, which is scheduled for 2013, security issues will be entered. Maybe that's when more felt the benefits of the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace prize..