We've had a rough couple of years to be sure. We've all lost friends and family, we've lost some of the pleasures of life, and we've probably got a way to go before it gets better.
It's easy to be pessimistic and go all doom and gloom with little hope for 2022 but please hold on for a minute while I tell you about possibly the worst year in history, 536 AD.
In 536 A.D. most of the world went dark for a full 18 months, the result of multiple volcanic eruptions beginning that year in Iceland and elsewhere, possibly in the Pacific and even North America, in 540 and 547. Dense volcanic ash filled the atmosphere and a fog rolled over Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The fog blocked the sun during the day, causing temperatures to drop, crops to fail and people to die. It was a true Dark Age.
The change in temperature put the earth into a prolonged winter. Because crops failed vermin moved into towns and villages to devour stores of grain and rice. With them came disease and one, the Justinian Plague is known to have killed 300,000 in Constantinople(Istanbul) with a record of 10,000 dead in one day.
In Peru there are records of massive crop failures. Similar accounts were written in Ireland and Scandinavia. In China it was written that 7 out of every 10 people died of starvation. There are accounts of villages in China and Korea being forced to eat the dead. Cannibalism most likely occurred in Europe as well but scholars couldn't bear to record it other than their fear of the evil they had witnessed.
Archeologists have uncovered ruins from this period where people just abandoned their homes and took to caravans or ships in hope of finding somewhere the sun still shone. Nordic people left huge offerings of gold in hope that the sun would return.
Scholars wrote that during the day the sun was a pale blue light in the sky, so weak you couldn't see a shadow. Scientists today theorize that the temperature changed by 2.7°C(4.9°F). It was enough variance to cause radical change. The world is just as vulnerable now as it was then. I'm talking to you climate change deniers!
There was no internet. There was no reliable way to disseminate information. People were largely illiterate. What people knew came from merchants and traders and there was little commerce going on during all of that darkness. All people knew was their town, their village, and their family.
So as bad as your 2021 was and as bad as you expect 2022 to be, it is nowhere near as bad as 536. If your biggest problem is you have to wear a face mask before you can get a caramel macchiato then I'd say you're doing all right.
I learned much of this because of Radiolab, one of my favorite radio programs/podcasts. I highly recommend it.
There is a lot of information on 536 AD, the Justinian Plague, the Late Antique Little Ice Age, and more from various academic sources on the internet and in books that you can find in your local library! Read it!
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