Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/05/medieval-volcano-disaster-london-graves


Spitalfields Market in east London where 10,500 medieval skeletons were found. Photograph: Elly Godfroy / Alamy/Alamy

When archaeologists discovered thousands of medieval skeletons in a mass burial pit in east London in the 1990s, they assumed they were 14th-century victims of the Black Death or the Great Famine of 1315-17. Now they have been astonished by a more explosive explanation – a cataclysmic volcano that had erupted a century earlier, thousands of miles away in the tropics, and wrought havoc on medieval Britons.

Scientific evidence – including radiocarbon dating of the bones and geological data from across the globe – shows for the first time that mass fatalities in the 13th century were caused by one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 10,000 years.

Such was the size of the eruption that its sulphurous gases would have released a stratospheric aerosol veil or dry fog that blocked out sunlight, altered atmospheric circulation patterns and cooled the Earth's surface. It caused crops to wither, bringing famine, pestilence and death.

Mass deaths required capacious burial pits, as recorded in contemporary accounts. In 1258, a monk reported: "The north wind prevailed for several months… scarcely a small rare flower or shooting germ appeared, whence the hope of harvest was uncertain... Innumerable multitudes of poor people died, and their bodies were found lying all about swollen from want… Nor did those who had homes dare to harbour the sick and dying, for fear of infection… The pestilence was immense – insufferable; it attacked the poor particularly. In London alone 15,000 of the poor perished; in England and elsewhere thousands died."

[Jessy169]

1. It will happen again, of course

But when it does, millions and maybe billions will die instead of thousands.

[agent46]

2. And it won't be

the end of the world. Just like it wasn't the last time.

[NickB79]

3. I don't know. Resource wars with nuclear weapons throw everything into question

If such an event occurred again today, and only a few areas along the equator would sustain agricultural production, you can bet there would be major wars fought in Africa and South America between the world's most powerful nations for control of the remaining food supply.

Throw a global nuclear war on top of a supervolcano, and kiss humanity goodbye. The Britons died because they didn't have the strength or ability to invade and overthrow weaker nations with resources.

[AverageJoe90]

4. I doubt we'll see WWIII within our lifetimes, even in the worst case scenarios.

On the other hand, major conventional wars are nothing to scoff at either, I suppose.

[Jessy169]

5. Interesting fact for those contemplating this morbid possibility

From some website: "With an explosive force 13,000 times the power of the atomic bomb that annihilated Hiroshima, the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa killed more than 36,000 people and radically altered global weather and temperatures for years afterwards."

The Yellowstone caldera eruption (which is overdue) is predicted to be magnitudes more powerful than the 1883 Krakatoa eruption.

If that happens, or something like it, I guess a couple hundred nuclear weapons aren't going to make much difference, other than the radiation poisoning on top of everything else of course. Also, if that happens, I predict that the powerful slap of reality in the face of what remains of humanity will be enough to keep their evil little fingers off the launch buttons, for a while at least.

[tclambert]

7. Well, the planet will survive. Humans probably.

Civilization? It barely survived George W. Bush.

[harmonicon]

6. There's no reason to assume that.

We now have resources to cope with these sorts of things. That said, we also have the resources to provide sufficient nutrition and housing to every person on the planet, yet fail to do so. Despite man's propensity to be terrible to his fellow man, we are getting better at dealing with these things.

[xtraxritical]

8. You've heard about the draught and the corn crops pretty much gone, right?

[harmonicon]

9. Yeah, and we're not all going to starve. (nt)

[NickB79]

10. Not in the US at least.

Other nations might not be so lucky: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/us-drought-could-pinch-worlds-poor-says-think-tank-ifpri

WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Drought in the U.S. farm belt may result in higher prices for poor people around the world, according to the head of an agricultural think tank who on Monday also recommended a halt to ethanol production from corn.

Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, said the global spike in food prices in 2008 showed how poor crops and tight supplies have wide impact. IFPRI is the analytical arm of a coalition of agricultural research facilities.

When you're living on a dollar a day, a "pinch" might be enough to send you over the edge. Or, to start a bloody revolution against your government.

[harmonicon]

11. That's only tangentially related to my point though.

You're bringing up prices, which is how we fuck one another, not a direct result of a natural disaster. With modern transportation, it would take a disaster far greater than that mentioned in the OP to cause people to starve because of a drop in world food production. As I said, there is no need for people to be poor or hungry now, but they are, because of greed. A natural disaster won't change that.

[NickB79]

12. The current natural disaster is global warming

The crazy weather we're witnessing isn't a once-off event; it's just the beginning of the "New Normal" in a world that will be several degrees warmer in the next few decades.

And since the disaster is global, you can't simply transport food from one part of the planet to another, since the climate shift will affect food production globally as well. Note how Russia restricted all wheat exports two years ago when their fields were decimated by drought in order to ensure adequate domestic supplies. That is just a taste of things to come.