Posted on 02/27/2006 10:53:31 AM PST by blam
Europe's chill linked to disease
By Kate Ravilious
Bubonic plague may have wiped out over a third of Europe's population
Europe's "Little Ice Age" may have been triggered by the 14th Century Black Death plague, according to a new study.
Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
This would have had the effect of cooling the climate, a team from Utrecht University, Netherlands, says.
The Little Ice Age was a period of some 300 years when Europe experienced a dip in average temperatures.
Dr Thomas van Hoof and his colleagues studied pollen grains and leaf remains collected from lake-bed sediments in the southeast Netherlands.
Monitoring the ups and downs in abundance of cereal pollen (like buckwheat) and tree pollen (like birch and oak) enabled them to estimate changes in land-use between AD 1000 and 1500.
Pore clues
The team found an increase in cereal pollen from 1200 onwards (reflecting agricultural expansion), followed by a sudden dive around 1347, linked to the agricultural crisis caused by the arrival of the Black Death, most probably a bacterial disease spread by rat fleas.
This bubonic plague is said to have wiped out over a third of Europe's population.
Counting stomata (pores) on ancient oak leaves provided van Hoof's team with a measure of the fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide for the same period.
This is because leaves absorb carbon dioxide through their stomata, and their density varies as carbon dioxide goes up and down.
"Between AD 1200 to 1300, we see a decrease in stomata and a sharp rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, due to deforestation we think," says Dr van Hoof, whose findings are published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
But after AD 1350, the team found the pattern reversed, suggesting that atmospheric carbon dioxide fell, perhaps due to reforestation following the plague.
The researchers think that this drop in carbon dioxide levels could help to explain a cooling in the climate over the following centuries.
Ocean damper
From around 1500, Europe appears to have been gripped by a chill lasting some 300 years.
There are many theories as to what caused these bitter years, but popular ideas include a decrease in solar activity, an increase in volcanic activity or a change in ocean circulation.
The new data adds weight to the theory that the Black Death could have played a pivotal role.
Not everyone is convinced, however. Dr Tim Lenton, an environmental scientist from the University of East Anglia, UK, said: "It is a nice study and the carbon dioxide changes could certainly be a contributory factor, but I think they are too modest to explain all the climate change seen."
And Professor Richard Houghton, a climate expert from Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, US, believes that the oceans would have compensated for the change.
"The atmosphere is in equilibrium with the ocean and this tends to dampen or offset small changes in terrestrial carbon uptake," he explained.
Nonetheless, the new findings are likely to cause a stir.
"It appears that the human impact on the environment started much earlier than the industrial revolution," said Dr van Hoof.
NOVA, I think, has a program about survivors of the plague. If a person was a descendent of two parents with a certain gene, they wouldn't die from it. Descendents of one parent with it tended to get sick, but recover. Some modern-day descendents have been proven to be immune from the AIDS virus. The program tested one homesexual man with risky behaviors who was apparently one of these descendents. It is a fascinating study if you get a chance to watch it.
Thanks for the tip - I'll watch for it.
You got me there......
no oil lamp?
It was an excellent program. The Ice Age really affected a lot of history that we learn. Yes, there are cyclical variations. FWIU, warming periods precede ice ages. We should be preparing for the effects of lower temperatures in the future rather than the opposite.
LOL!
I should get an oil lamp, but I don't think it would help me run my fridge.
(Hey, it's as reasonable as any of the rest of this wild speculation here.)
You're thinking of the Great London Plague of 1664-1665, which is generally considered to have been halted by the London Fire of 1666 (though the number of infected and deaths had already begun a steep decline). The Black Death was in the 1340s.
"You're thinking of the Great London Plague of 1664-1665, which is generally considered to have been halted by the London Fire of 1666 (though the number of infected and deaths had already begun a steep decline). The Black Death was in the 1340s."
It was still bubonic plague. There were scattered, periodic outbreaks throughout 1340 - 1666.
I don't know which theory is right. I do know that 95% + of the folks who write these articles start with the conclusion and look for theories that make the facts lead to that conclusion.
Since there are more trees in the US now than there were at the time of the American Revolution, that must mean we're experiencing global cooling now, right?
No, no, no.
You see, slaves' descendants are dark skinned. Therefore, they absorb heat and keep North America cool. It's the whites who are evil, because their skin reflects the heat and light back and heats everything up.
This is another reason why we cannot permit drilling in ANWR. All the honkies headed up there, just by sun reflecting off their, will cause a local micro-warming that will melt the permafrost.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, that Kennewick Man business does prove that there was ONE strain of white man in North America at the time of the Indians. Where do you thing the Indians learned a nasty habit like smoking tobacco.
So that, my friends, was the contribution of the European to the Indian before Columbus and the Vikings. They were over in North America just long enough to teach the descent, hardworking native immigrants from Asia how to smoke. Then they died out. So really it wasn't the Indi...sorry, Native Americans...teaching the Europeans how to smoke tobacco, because (by definition) they could have done nothing bad. It was, rather, Native Americans reteaching whites the foul habits that the ancestors of the whites taught the Indians before dying out.
More and more science is proving all of this everyday.
Here's some great reading right on point, from Mr. Kipling (who knew his onions): A Doctor of Medicine.
Interestingly enough, this would be about the time that the greater than 50% drop in population in North America, following a series of epidemics resulted in extensive reforestation. This would then seem to counter the claims made in the article.
The drop in hunting pressure, and for some species an increase in habitat, resulted in greatly increased wildlife abundance.
We would have to cut the population a lot more than 1/3 to get it down to post-plague levels but that probably wouldn't worry the Gaia worshipper too much.
Meat is murder, but if 2/3rds of people die of natural causes, it'll be ok to eat them, just so long as you don't eat anything four legged or feathered.
The Little Ice Age was from 1300-1850 +- a few years.
Well, I planted a long living 'Live Oak' Saturday. I'm off the hook, huh?
What is the name of the book? It sounds like the kind of book I would like.
Wouldn't most Europeans be descendents of survivors of the Plague? My family goes back to England.
It apparently starved all the Viking settlers on Greenland too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.