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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00:00in the aftermath of a global pandemic humans today are far too knowledgeable about the effects of a
00:09plague on the course of history however experts now say that a sickness for more than half a
00:13millennium ago not only wreaked havoc on humanity it literally changed the planet's atmosphere
00:19researchers were able to collect this data by taking ice core samples from antarctica these
00:23are effectively snapshots of the atmospheric conditions from the time they were frozen and
00:27these paint the best pictures we have of that over the last 2000 years one of these cores called the
00:32law dome core reveals a quick decrease in co2 over nine decades leading up to 1610 ce experts say this
00:39would have lined up with christopher columbus and his voyage to the new world where diseases from
00:43europe were brought and spread to the indigenous peoples of america other cores show similar declines
00:49in co2 but a more gradual decline so why would a sickness change the planet's atmospheric carbon
00:54the researchers say this was likely due to human population centers being disbanded during
00:58pandemics and retaken by nature this new vegetation growth would have absorbed much of the co2 from a
01:04human race ravaged by sickness leading to a decrease in atmospheric carbon until our species recovered