Middle Ages Environment

Some people say that the cause of the fall of the Roman empire in the West around 400 AD was a change in the climate, which caused famines and plagues and made people unhappy with their government. It is true that there was a cold period around this time in Western Europe, but it probably came a little later, in the 500s and 600s AD, too late to be the cause of the fall of Roman government. But around 500 the climate did get colder. In the south, like in Spain, this may have been good: more rain, maybe. In the north, in France, Germany, and England, it was bad. There was a lot of flooding in the river valleys, and many Roman villages in the valleys had to be abandoned as people moved up onto the hills. You couldn't grow olives or wine so far north as before. One result was a general shift to eating butter rather than olive oil and using tallow or beeswax candles for lighting instead of oil lamps.