Professor Kyle Harper

So sometimes it's not just that there's a food shortage, it's that there's nothing to eat, that there's a real harvest failure that causes a real famine. And or And usually there's this conjunction of food shortage and virulence. But one of the things that seems to lie behind these rare events that happen every century or two is there is a big bad microbe.

So sometimes it's not just that there's a food shortage, it's that there's nothing to eat, that there's a real harvest failure that causes a real famine. And or And usually there's this conjunction of food shortage and virulence. But one of the things that seems to lie behind these rare events that happen every century or two is there is a big bad microbe.

So sometimes it's not just that there's a food shortage, it's that there's nothing to eat, that there's a real harvest failure that causes a real famine. And or And usually there's this conjunction of food shortage and virulence. But one of the things that seems to lie behind these rare events that happen every century or two is there is a big bad microbe.

There's plague, there's smallpox, there's typhus. There's certain diseases that are just nastier than others. And then there's this elite class of nightmare germs that seem capable of causing just a different level of destruction. And so we don't totally understand this. This is like an incredibly interesting and rich area of research that combines biology, that combines history and archaeology.

There's plague, there's smallpox, there's typhus. There's certain diseases that are just nastier than others. And then there's this elite class of nightmare germs that seem capable of causing just a different level of destruction. And so we don't totally understand this. This is like an incredibly interesting and rich area of research that combines biology, that combines history and archaeology.

There's plague, there's smallpox, there's typhus. There's certain diseases that are just nastier than others. And then there's this elite class of nightmare germs that seem capable of causing just a different level of destruction. And so we don't totally understand this. This is like an incredibly interesting and rich area of research that combines biology, that combines history and archaeology.

And we really are trying to understand what causes these really, really big pandemic events. It does often seem to be an alignment between a lot of things going wrong at the same time.

And we really are trying to understand what causes these really, really big pandemic events. It does often seem to be an alignment between a lot of things going wrong at the same time.

And we really are trying to understand what causes these really, really big pandemic events. It does often seem to be an alignment between a lot of things going wrong at the same time.

Exactly. I mean, that's a hypothesis. And I think it's one that's pretty persuasive and has some strong evidence behind it. Start with the Roman warm period, or sometimes it's increasingly called the Roman climate optimum, which is a name for a climate period that maybe goes from like the late Republic to the apex, the Pax Romana, the first and second century.

Exactly. I mean, that's a hypothesis. And I think it's one that's pretty persuasive and has some strong evidence behind it. Start with the Roman warm period, or sometimes it's increasingly called the Roman climate optimum, which is a name for a climate period that maybe goes from like the late Republic to the apex, the Pax Romana, the first and second century.

Exactly. I mean, that's a hypothesis. And I think it's one that's pretty persuasive and has some strong evidence behind it. Start with the Roman warm period, or sometimes it's increasingly called the Roman climate optimum, which is a name for a climate period that maybe goes from like the late Republic to the apex, the Pax Romana, the first and second century.

It's a name for this climate period that was created by the climate people, not by the Roman history people who were sitting there looking at tree rings and ice cores and And observe that in a number of different paleoclimate records, that there's a pretty long phase of three, four centuries where it's relatively stable, where there's relatively few major forcing events.

It's a name for this climate period that was created by the climate people, not by the Roman history people who were sitting there looking at tree rings and ice cores and And observe that in a number of different paleoclimate records, that there's a pretty long phase of three, four centuries where it's relatively stable, where there's relatively few major forcing events.

It's a name for this climate period that was created by the climate people, not by the Roman history people who were sitting there looking at tree rings and ice cores and And observe that in a number of different paleoclimate records, that there's a pretty long phase of three, four centuries where it's relatively stable, where there's relatively few major forcing events.

And we can maybe come back to what causes climate variability. climate forcing mechanisms do. And these include, among other things, volcanic eruptions, which are a very powerful short-term mechanism of climate change. And they're really interesting in lots of different ways. They're interesting historically, they're interesting for understanding the earth system and how the climate system works.

And we can maybe come back to what causes climate variability. climate forcing mechanisms do. And these include, among other things, volcanic eruptions, which are a very powerful short-term mechanism of climate change. And they're really interesting in lots of different ways. They're interesting historically, they're interesting for understanding the earth system and how the climate system works.

And we can maybe come back to what causes climate variability. climate forcing mechanisms do. And these include, among other things, volcanic eruptions, which are a very powerful short-term mechanism of climate change. And they're really interesting in lots of different ways. They're interesting historically, they're interesting for understanding the earth system and how the climate system works.

But volcanoes are like this really powerful thing. And I don't mean like the Iceland volcano that dribbles out smoke and disrupts some air travel. As significant as that is, every century or two, even Vesuvius that erupts in the first century and buries Pompeii and Herculaneum is not a big eruption.

But volcanoes are like this really powerful thing. And I don't mean like the Iceland volcano that dribbles out smoke and disrupts some air travel. As significant as that is, every century or two, even Vesuvius that erupts in the first century and buries Pompeii and Herculaneum is not a big eruption.