536 was the worst year ever (so give 2018 a break)

In A.D. 536, Europe had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year.

It started when a mysterious fog swept over the continent, veiling the sun in a blue haze and casting Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia into darkness 24 hours a day, for 18 months. Falling temperatures ushered in the coldest decade of the past 2,000 years, crops failed from Ireland to China, and famine ran rampant. Those who endured the long, cold night faced even harsher times in the years to come; in A.D. 541, an outbreak of bubonic plague known as Justinian's Plague scythed through the Mediterranean, killing up to 100 million people.

This series of events was, to put it in scientific terms, a total bummer. Michael McCormick, a medieval historian and archaeologist, recently told Science magazine that the year 536 was "the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year." But despite all that is known about the devastation that began then, scientists still aren't sure exactly what caused the mystery cloud of doom to descend over Europe in the first place. [End of the World? Top 10 Doomsday Threats]

Now, McCormick and his colleagues from the U.S., the U.K. and Germany believe they've finally uncovered the answer. In a new study published this week (Nov. 14) in the journal Antiquity, the team analyzed an ancient ice core pulled from the Swiss Alps containing more than 2,000 years' worth of microscopic history lessons. Particles of dust, metal and airborne elements frozen at various levels of the 235-foot-long (72 meters) core hint at how the atmosphere over Europe changed throughout the past two millennia — a Saharan dust storm here, a silver-mining boom there — and, according to the new study, reveal that a massive volcanic eruption in Iceland directly preceded the beginning of Europe's darkest days.

1 The problem with such research is that any climate based official "science" is now so suspect it should be automatically disregarded for anything but the sort of purpose you're using it for.  Are they reporting something true, or blowing smoke when there was another cause that doesn't fit the narrative?

This is getting to be pretty important the more a number of scientists are getting worried we're imminently heading into the next and overdue ice age.

2 I saw a special on PBS a number of years ago about this; they said in Ireland there was two years of almost total darkness. The civilization that was there pretty much just collapsed. Our old commenter Ron DeHaan said it was an Icelandic volcano too but he provided no documentation. I guess old Ron was right.

3 I understand your skepticism, Anonymous. You are right; all science is now political. And this could be a way to bring back the old, discredited "nuclear winter" hypothesis that was intended to stampede us into disarming ourselves back in the '80's.