"A 'Climate Anomaly' Worsened World War I and the 1918" Topic

… Flu Pandemic

"A once-in-a-century "climate anomaly" exacerbated the awful conditions along the Western Front in Europe during the First World War, according to new research. This unusual weather may have also amplified—and possibly even initiated—the catastrophic 1918-19 flu pandemic, exposing an underappreciated threat posed by climate change.

New research published in GeoHealth describes the impact of a six-year climate anomaly on World War I and the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. The unusual weather, which occurred from 1914 to 1919, included torrential rain and particularly cold temperatures, making a bad situation even worse, according to the study, led by climate scientist and historian Alexander More from Harvard University.

That extraordinarily awful weather worsened the war and the pandemic is entirely plausible, but the new research also proposes—albeit speculatively—that the climate anomaly caused the pandemic to start by altering the migratory behavior of ducks, notorious carriers of H1N1, a type of influenza virus…"

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Amicalement
Armand

And the winter of 1939 was spectacularly cold …

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand