Those 18th Century SUVs

 1/21/14 Daily Mail:

A glacier could still be found in the UK until 300 years ago - 11,000 years later than previously thought, according to new research.

Scientists from Exeter University have found that small glaciers almost certainly existed in the Cairngorms in Scotland as recently as the 18th century.

Their findings contradict the long-held belief that Britain's last glaciers disappeared around the 9th millennium BC.

Scientists had previously speculated that glaciers might have formed in the Highlands around the time of the 'Little Ice Age', a period of cooling between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Notably, the scientists tie the melting to the end of the Little Ice Age, not industrialization, which also took place in the 18th century.  The amount of fossil fuel burned at the start of Industrial Revolution was so small as to make man's activities an impossible cause for the end of the Little Ice Age.  

I have long wondered if the improved crop yields as the Little Ice Age started to wane might have actually started the Industrial Revolution.  The similar warming around 1000 AD improved crop yields and population.  As populations grow beyond a certain level of prosperity, there are more people capable of invention, rather than wresting subsistence from the soil.