Death of the Empire

15
October 2018

Death of the Empire

Continuing academic debate about the root causes of the death of the Byzantine Empire which succeeded Rome. This time, the reason for the resumption of discussions was the popular journalist Hannes Stein’s article in the influential Die Welt. In it, Stein reviews positively the book by the Vice-Rector of the University of Oklahoma, Professor Kyle Harper “The Fate of Rome: the Climate of Illness and the End of the Empire”. The journalist is confident that the conclusions of the American historian about the medieval tragedy are very relevant to the modern world.

During its heyday, Byzantium actively developed trade with China. In 540 AD, plague spread in Europe, brought there by ship rats. The epidemic spread rapidly in both the West and the East. Outbreaks of disease followed one after another, killing tens of millions. The last outbreak was recorded in 749. Then Europe turned into a backward crap edge, which was inhabited by small groups of uneducated, physically and morally traumatized people. It seemed that the revival of civilization was no longer possible ...

Scientists have tried to restore these historical events for quite some time. But Kyle Haper's innovation is that he called climate the root cause of the catastrophe. Today it is proved that around 540 AD were abnormally cold. They were preceded by decades of intensive deforestation in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. As a result, there was less rain in the region, the “greenhouse effect” disappeared, and the sunlight, which was easily reflected from the Earth, stopped warming it. The years without summer have created comfortable weather conditions for bacteria. After all, the causative agent of bubonic plague dies in a warm environment ...

Kyle Harper does not write about the current state of ecology on our planet in his book. But even then, the conclusion is obvious: the consumer attitude towards nature is the main threat to life on Earth . The irony is that Byzantium died from a cold spell, and we risk dying from global warming. This warming might will help other deadly bacteria.

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