In the aftermath of a global pandemic, humans today are far too knowledgeable about the effects of a plague on the course of history. However, experts now say that a sickness from more than half a millennium ago not only wreaked havoc on humanity, it literally changed the planet's atmosphere.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 In the aftermath of a global pandemic,
00:06 humans today are far too knowledgeable about the effects
00:08 of a plague on the course of history.
00:11 However, experts now say that a sickness from more than half
00:13 a millennium ago not only wreaked havoc on humanity,
00:16 it literally changed the planet's atmosphere.
00:19 Researchers were able to collect this data by taking ice core
00:22 samples from Antarctica.
00:23 These are effectively snapshots of the atmospheric conditions
00:26 from the time they were frozen.
00:27 And these paint the best pictures
00:28 we have of that over the last 2,000 years.
00:31 One of these cores, called the law dome core,
00:33 reveals a quick decrease in CO2 over nine decades
00:36 leading up to 1610 CE.
00:38 Experts say this would have lined up
00:40 with Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World,
00:43 where diseases from Europe were brought and spread
00:45 to the indigenous peoples of America.
00:47 Other cores show similar declines in CO2,
00:50 but a more gradual decline.
00:51 So why would a sickness change the planet's atmospheric carbon?
00:54 The researchers say this was likely
00:56 due to human population centers being disbanded
00:58 during pandemics and retaken by nature.
01:01 This new vegetation growth would have absorbed much of the CO2
01:04 from a human race ravaged by sickness,
01:06 leading to a decrease in atmospheric carbon
01:08 until our species recovered.
01:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:14 (upbeat music)