00:03in the aftermath of a global pandemic humans today are far too knowledgeable about the effects of a
00:09plague on the course of history however experts now say that a sickness from more than half a
00:14millennium ago not only wreaked havoc on humanity it literally changed the planet's atmosphere
00:19researchers were able to collect this data by taking ice core samples from antarctica these
00:23are effectively snapshots of the atmospheric conditions from the time they were frozen and
00:27these paint the best pictures we have of that over the last two thousand years one of these cores
00:32called the law dome core reveals a quick decrease in co2 over nine decades leading up to 1610 ce
00:38experts say this would have lined up with christopher columbus and his voyage to the new world where
00:43diseases from europe were brought and spread to the indigenous peoples of america other cores show
00:48similar declines in co2 but a more gradual decline so why would a sickness change the planet's atmospheric
00:54carbon the researchers say this was likely due to human population centers being disbanded during
00:58pandemics and retaken by nature this new vegetation growth would have absorbed much of the co2 from a
01:04human race ravaged by sickness leading to a decrease in atmospheric carbon until our species recovered
