Following is an excerpt from my book, Surviving Mother Nature's
Tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have
had on the lives of our ancestors (with examples from the British Isles). For
more information click the book cover image in the blog margin.
Introduction
This
book directly relates many of the situations observed in nature to the lives of
families who experienced or endured them, primarily over the past several
centuries. Natural events had wide-ranging effects on generations of people, as
well as influencing changes to political, economic and societal situations. . .
Mother
Nature is a fickle mistress and it often takes all the ingenuity, strength and
moral fibre of individuals to last through and thrive under her changing
demands. This was even more the case centuries ago when families were almost
solely involved in agrarian activities and totally dependent on the land.
Fluctuating conditions in the natural environment then had immediate and very
profound influences on the success or failure of food-producing endeavours and
income – even of life and death.
Naturally-occurring
phenomena are a result of physical processes that have always been a normal
part of Earth’s geological history. . .
For discussion and comparison purposes,
specific types of natural events are described in relation to the time-frames
in which they happened and how the lives of people were affected:
·
Climate Change – In order to fully appreciate how the
processes involved in changes to living environments affected people and
communities, it is necessary to also understand the basics of how climate itself changes.
·
Epochal Changes: The Holocene – Gradual altering of environments and human
habitats, mainly related to climate change, but also to ongoing geological processes,
occurred over hundreds of years and had long-lasting effects. As they affected
people and communities, such changes are only observable over generations, but
they did ultimately have major impacts on human existence and experience. Brief
summaries of human and natural history of the last 10,000 years (the Holocene
Epoch) illustrate how long-term changes to climate and the frequency of alternating warm and cold
periods that occurred over that time span affected human history.
·
The Last Millennium – Natural changes during the
last 1,000 years or so are reviewed in more detail along with their effects on
people, communities and social systems. These are events that have been best
documented and that can be directly tied to family histories as a consequence
of widespread record-keeping and mass publication.
·
Slow-Developing Events – Drought and famine, erosion of coastal margins,
infilling of estuaries, shifts in river courses and volcanic activity affected living conditions and economies,
lasting from several months to several years. Many were directly related to the
changing climate.
·
Rapidly-Materializing Incidents –
Earthquakes, disease, floods and storms had immediate impacts on
people and communities, individually lasting days, weeks or occasionally
months. Some can be shown to be related to climate;
others are part of normal geological processes that have been ongoing throughout the world’s
existence. . .
Responses to natural phenomena, and how people adapted to
environmental changes are part and parcel of the construction of family
histories. Physical changes to human habitats through natural causes may have
been underlying factors in decisions to move – to find jobs and/or improved
living conditions. . .
Looking back at events of the past, we may
come to the realization that we are all descended from survivors of Mother
Nature’s tests. Natural phenomena have acted, in many cases, in a winnowing fashion
on the population. Climate had a strong influence on the genesis of those
changes.
