WEBVTT - Why Was 1816 the Year With No Summer?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. When a butterfly flaps

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<v Speaker 1>its wings in the Amazon, chaos theory goes it may

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<v Speaker 1>cause a tornado in Texas, or when the biggest volcanic

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<v Speaker 1>explosion in human history takes place in Indonesia. Mary Shelley

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<v Speaker 1>writes Frankenstein in Switzerland, well, amongst many other things. Eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen was the year without a summer, caused by the

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<v Speaker 1>near catastrophic environmental changes that occurred when Mount Tombora erupted

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<v Speaker 1>over the course of four months of the previous year,

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<v Speaker 1>starting on April five, eighteen fifteen. The blast instantly killed

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<v Speaker 1>ten thousand people on the island where it's located, Zimbawa,

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<v Speaker 1>which is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was

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<v Speaker 1>catastrophic and estimated ninety thousand people died on nearby islands,

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<v Speaker 1>many of starvation after crops and forests were killed, fresh

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<v Speaker 1>water was contaminated, a dozen cubic miles of debris were

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<v Speaker 1>thrown into the atmosphere, and a blast a hundred times

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<v Speaker 1>more powerful than Mountain Saint Helen's. But it isn't just

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<v Speaker 1>debris that's flung into the air. When a volcano erupts, gases,

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<v Speaker 1>including sulfur dioxide, reached the stratosphere. The sulfur dioxide is

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<v Speaker 1>converted to sulfuric acid, where it can stay in the

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<v Speaker 1>atmosphere for a couple of years. Those acid aerosols act

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<v Speaker 1>as reflectors that allow less energy from the Sun to

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<v Speaker 1>reach Earth's surface, and as a result, cooling occurs and

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<v Speaker 1>for the northern hemisphere cool It was that year in America.

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<v Speaker 1>In June of eighteen sixteen, there was twenty inches that's

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<v Speaker 1>about fifty centimes of snow in New England, and the

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<v Speaker 1>white stuff provided for festive sleigh rides in Virginia from

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<v Speaker 1>May to September. In Ireland, it reigned a hundred forty

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<v Speaker 1>two out of a hundred and fifty three days. Crops

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<v Speaker 1>failed in North America, Europe, in China from frost or

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<v Speaker 1>from unexpected drought or floods. It's the only year in

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<v Speaker 1>recorded history where trees showed zero growth in the Northeast

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<v Speaker 1>United States. Should you cut down one of the stately

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<v Speaker 1>oaks that was alive then and count its rings to

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<v Speaker 1>determine how many years it's been around, one ring would

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<v Speaker 1>be missing some Americans nicknamed the year eighteen hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>froze to death in China. Resulting instability may have allowed

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<v Speaker 1>the British controlled opium trade to take hold. A cholera

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<v Speaker 1>epidemic swept South Asia and gained ground, becoming the first

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<v Speaker 1>cholera pandemic. In the following years, the American West started

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<v Speaker 1>enticing failing New England farmers, creating the jumping off point

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<v Speaker 1>for the Great migration westward. The dark, miserable weather of

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen sixteen also inspired the poet Lord Byron to suggest

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<v Speaker 1>to a summer guests and a Swiss villa to try

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<v Speaker 1>their hand at ghost stories. A young Mary Shelley took

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<v Speaker 1>to her room with candle light to penned the beginnings

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<v Speaker 1>of Frankenstein. During that time, Byron wrote his poem Darkness,

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<v Speaker 1>which begins I had a dream which was not all

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<v Speaker 1>a dream. The bright sun was extinguished. Though to be fair,

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<v Speaker 1>this summer that wasn't was also part of a larger

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<v Speaker 1>cooling trend in the early nineteenth century, and we should

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<v Speaker 1>note that the southern hemisphere seemed to be largely unaffected. Still,

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<v Speaker 1>the no summer summer caused significant global ripples. The climate

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<v Speaker 1>crisis lasted through eighteen eighteen. Failed crops led to hunger

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<v Speaker 1>and poverty, and communities around the Northern hemisphere the prices

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<v Speaker 1>of everything skyrocketed. On the positive side, in the long run, anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>these tragedies seemed to have spurred evolving ideas about humanitarianism,

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<v Speaker 1>which was unfortunately just rhetoric at the time, but may

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<v Speaker 1>have been the beginning of some of the social programs

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<v Speaker 1>that help people in need today. Yeah. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article eighteen sixteen was the Year Without

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<v Speaker 1>a Summer on how stuff works dot com, written by

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<v Speaker 1>Kate Kirshner. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and is

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clay. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,

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