How pandemics changed Earth’s atmosphere thousands of years ago; to understand

In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, a group of scientists analyzed ice cores collected in Antarctica to understand our past a little better. From the data, they discovered a link between atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and different global pandemics that have occurred in the past.

Ice cores are considered the best record of the planet’s past because they can preserve tiny air bubbles containing samples of gases produced in Earth’s atmosphere thousands or millions of years ago.

Researchers claim that ice cores work almost like a time capsule; two were Law Made and retrieved from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) — two large domes in the area. During this historical period, there were wars in Europe, Mount Vesuvius erupted and unfortunately many diseases caused epidemics in various parts of the world; syphilis and the Black Death are just two examples.

“Ice cores offer a unique opportunity to make direct measurements on ancient atmospheres encapsulated in ice. Records from the last 2000 years of the Gregorian Era provide the highest resolution greenhouse gas archives, allowing us to observe changes in the atmosphere on a decadal to centennial scale,” reads the paper’s introduction. It provides a basis for the announced pre-industrial atmospheric values.

Pandemics and Earth’s atmosphere

Scientists who analyzed ice samples taken from the area where the Law Dome is located found that there was a significant decrease in CO2 over 90 years, with this number reaching the minimum value in mid-1610. The decline in CO2 levels occurred more gradually until the 17th century.

The article argues that the decline in human population due to epidemics and diseases caused people to abandon their settlements. This abandonment is responsible for the growth of vegetation in these areas, where significant amounts of CO2 are absorbed from the atmosphere.

Despite the disagreements, researchers analyzed a third ice core from the Skytrain Ice Rise, confirming that carbon dioxide levels did indeed drop during periods when serious diseases affected humanity. The conclusion is that CO2 is actually decreasing gradually, and the high reduction recorded in the Law Dome ice core is incompatible with even the most extreme scenarios.

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