Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Plague - Global Cooling!
Up to this point the readings on the plague have been the most interesting. After the reading though I felt some of my own questions went unanswered. For instance, I wondered what the main factor was that eventually contained the plague. I understand it is still around today, but I'm curious to know what factors were at play that prevented the plague from eventually wiping out all of Europe. Additionally, I found it interesting because it was mentioned multiple times that the plague flourished because the planet was experiencing a cooling period with very wet conditions that negatively contributed to the spread of the disease. You would think then that maybe global warming has some positive effects after all. I guess I'll take my chances with global warming over global cooling that killed 1/3 of the people. I wonder if people in the middle ages had people running around telling them we are all doomed because of global cooling? And then everyone must be 'black' and everyone must work to warm the planet by burning fires all night. Maybe tax incentives to mine coal? Was their an Italian Al Gore saying, "I told you so!"? Are we going to go too far cooling the planet and then we will be working for the next 100 years trying to warm it again?I apologize for getting a on a soapbox. Its just that the reading made me realize that our generation is spoiled in comparison to other people in history. Overall, this is why I love history it really puts things in perspective. Also, I wonder if the disease traveled and affected the Western Hemisphere as well. If anyone knows any good books on the plague please let me know.
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2 comments:
I really liked your post. After reading it it made me think that nowadays we have something very similar to the plague. AIDS. If you think about it AIDS spread, as far as I know, from Africa to the rest of the world. These days we have the knowledge and intelligence to find ways to protect ourselves from it, and if infected, to control the symptoms. But probably if we didn't have all of these technology and knowledge we would end up just like them. I also wondered how did they stop it? Maybe we could learn something from them to stop the "plague" that threatens our lives.
My husband and I were talking about this very thing. What made the plague dormant since the 6th century? Was there never a "cooling trend" cold enough to bring it about sooner, or is there more to it than the cooling? Like you we asked, what finally stopped it? Obvious what ever it was took time. Approximately 300 years. And if it's still around today, what keeps it from becoming an outbreak? But I guess that's the beauty. Questions are what keep us searching and learning.
On the rest of your article, thank goodness we have the past to remind us of our current day blessings. Just think, if it wasn't for the plague, Isaac Newton may never have finished his writings on the physics of motion. Where would that have left us? There is always a silver lining to every black cloud. The black plague had many.
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