Was it warmer in Virginia in 1781 than it is today, or has our capacity to cope been enhanced? In fact, climate does not determine our well-being. Unfortunately, climate change policies might, and for the worse.
H/T and comment above: Indur Goklany
From: The Washington Post
By J.R. McNeill
Monday, October 18, 2010; 3:57 PM
Major combat operations in the American Revolution ended 229 years ago on Oct. 19, at Yorktown. For that we can thank the fortitude of American forces under George Washington, the siegecraft of French troops of Gen. Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the count of Rochambeau – and the relentless bloodthirstiness of female Anopheles quadrimaculatus mosquitoes.
Those tiny amazons conducted covert biological warfare against the British army. Female mosquitoes seek mammalian blood to provide the proteins they need to make eggs. No blood meal, no reproduction. It makes them bold and determined to bite.
Some anopheles mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite, which they can inject into human bloodstreams when taking their meals. In eastern North America, A. quadrimaculatus was the sole important malaria vector. It carried malaria from person to person, and susceptible humans carried it from mosquito to mosquito. In the 18th century, no one suspected that mosquitoes carried diseases.
Malaria, still one of the most deadly infectious diseases in the world, was a widespread scourge in North America until little more than a century ago. The only people resistant to it were either those of African descent – many of whom had inherited genetic traits that blocked malaria from doing its worst – or folks who had already been infected many times, acquiring resistance the hard way. In general, the more bouts you survive, the more resistant you are.
Le Judge – the first link appears to have been chopped, I’ll try again:
http://calms.abdn.ac.uk/Geology/dserve.exe?dsqServer=Calms&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=4&dsqSearch=((text)='kayak‘)
This link should end as “((text)=’kayak’)” without the double quotes. Here’s a tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/36qvk3x
In any event if you search the catalog there for ‘kayak’ you’ll find the relevant entries.
Hope this is of assistance to you.
The word malaria means “foul air” in Italian, and was applied to the malaria infection in the swamps around Rome (the Seven Hills were mere elevations among the swamp). A synonym for malaria in Italian is “paludismo”, from “palude”=swamp. There is ample historical testimony about malaria in Rome, at about 42° Northern Latidude, since the days of Julius Caesar (or before) to the early 20th century when the swamps were finally refilled. There were also frequent bouts of malaria in Venice and the Po River Valley, in the North of Italy.
re: Malaria
in the northern parts of Germany (that’s where I am from), malaria was pretty common prior to WWI. From the books of churches in that area, annually between 2 and 5% of the kids below age of 12 were fatal casualties of malaria (old german: “Schlafkrankheit”).
Lots of documents exists there, at the “Wattenmeerhaus”, http://www.wattenmeerhaus.de, and the “Museum Fedderwardersiel”, http://www.museum-fedderwardersiel.de, unfortunately not online accessible.
Anyway, Frisians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisians) could cope with everything, which they did thrugh centuries.
“That all Frisians would be fully free, the born and the unborn, so long as the wind blows from heaven and the child cries, grass grows green and flowers bloom, as far as the sun rises and the world stands”.
Nowadays there are other opportunities than going with Angles, Saxons and Jutes as threat to England (East Anglia) , Galicia, Sicily, Poland, Russia, Ireland, Spain.
One is “Sea Rescue Service” – “To go out, when everbody else tries to get in, return isn’t guaranteed”. The German Sea Rescue Service (‘DGzRS’) is still a society mostly (7/8) of volunteers, supported by donations from peoples and companies, no government money. Nevertheless, their performance is exceptional.
For more, see:
“www.seenotretter.de” – for people leaning to seasickness – don’t look on the top of the screen. And Never, Never look into some videos under the [left menue, “Mediengalerie”] on some of the videos – vomitting is a possibilitty.
More links:
http://www.dgzrs.de/index.php?id=265 [english text, German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS)]
http://www.dgzrs.de/index.php?id=271 [english text, fleet, pdf (Bases and tasks – organization and area of operation)]
KlausB
I don’t know if this reflects climate or control mechanisms. In 1953 I could not go outside to play during the month of August in Klamath Falls, OR. The mosquitos darkened the sky prior to sunset. The cattle across the street were forced to run laps around their pasture to stay ahead of the swarm. At least one died from exhaustion, blood loss or both.
Two years later the skys were clear. The miracle of DDT had reached the Klamath Basin and life has been better ever since.
Ah, you Brits! You are what, 100-1? and still cannot get over that 1!
Or was it the football game that has you out for revenge? 😉
KlausB says:
October 19, 2010 at 1:03 pm
“and 5% of the kids below age of 12 were fatal casualties of malaria (old german: “Schlafkrankheit”).”
Wouldn’t that be “Sumpffieber”? (swamp fever) Wikipedia also mentions “Marschenfieber” (marshes fever).
KlausB says:
October 19, 2010 at 1:03 pm – here 3 videos, the 3rd one ist the worst, a 2-mast-sailing-vessel under distress.
http://www.dgzrs.de/index.php?id=635
http://www.dgzrs.de/index.php?id=371
http://www.dgzrs.de/index.php?id=463
Ken Hall @ur momisugly 3:57.
I seem to remember plagues of Scottish Nationalist midges, rather than mosquitos. We took to cleaning our mackerel over the water rather than back on land…the job was too miserable to do on land with a face full of those appalling little creatures.
@Smokey
Yes this is the same John Cleese. Personally I find the output of Terry Jones to be much funnier since Fawlty Towers ended but I think this captures most of the essence of why the the UK finds the US annoying. We have done very bad things in the world but at least we never made ‘Friends’, or indeed ‘Bud’.
Google Terry Jones and Documentary for what I mean – his Crusades series is excellent.
I think Malaria had little to do with why we lost the ‘Colonial War’ for reasons already posted – i.e. we ruled most of the world where malaria was also evident. The French were our undoing which is ironic given how most Americans now hate the French – I believe they actually love Americans from my last visit to Paris and who make the Statue of Liberty ? – and how we (the British Empire) worked with them to defeat Russia in the Crimea.
This book
http://www.amazon.com/Marching-Drums-Eyewitness-Accounts-Ladysmith/dp/1853673722
contains many tales of ‘Derring do’ on behalf of ‘the company’ or ‘The Empire’ all over the world. The chapters on Afghanistan and why we can never win are particularly instructive. Those on India and Burma and why we actually did win those wars and why we had an Empire which is now a Commonwealth.
Yours.
Colonel Blimp (rtd)
Pablo an expat @ur momisugly 6:26.
Gin and Tonic is a very easily acquired taste! My favourite version of it is made with Bombay Sapphire gin, Fevertree tonic and a slice of frozen lime (failing that, lemon). Dear Other Half prefers a lump of ice added too. I horrify airline cabin crew by never accepting ice in my drinks!
G and T is a most acceptable medication against the Ague.
Le Judge says:
October 19, 2010 at 6:42 am
M Le Judge,
Try page 219 of Climate, history and the modern world By H. H. Lamb.
Here is part of the quote:
A bizarre occurrence – serious for the individuals concerned – presumably resulting from the great southward spread of the polar water and ice was the arrival about the Orkney Islands a number of times between about 1690 and 1728, and once in the river Don near Aberdeen, of an Eskimo in his kayak.
Hope this helps. I found the information surprising to say the least.
Regards,
Jack
Sorry, I meant to include the URL of the book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=0Nucx3udvnoC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=lamb+climate+civilization&source=bl&ots=5kcrIm0SL8&sig=GXWZJr2FLS_Cebgsjc7vwfT7HDM&hl=en&ei=2Se-TPSqFoO8lQe0j83mBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=kayak&f=false
Past malaria in USA, Canada, USSR, England and EU
Malaria in Finland, Russia and Sweden – 1800–1870
Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age
and Scotland
Malaria epidemic in England – 1917 and 1918
Malaria epidemics in Sweden – 18th and 19th centuries
Malaria epidemics in USSR and Siberia – 1800s – 1900s
Malaria Around the North Sea – 1500 to 1950
Malaria epidemic in Finland – 1941–1945
Malaria in Ontario – 18th & 19th century
Malaria in Ottawa
Malaria map of USA – 1870s
Malaria in the USA – 1800s
Global warming and malaria: a call for accuracy
To our American Friends; All is forgiven, seeing that you didn’t actually beat the British (it was those pesky mozzies), we can now welcome you back to the Commonwealth. The recent “Commonwealth Games” in India show that those games need some world class competition, and you guys are qualified to join in.
Wild talk about dengue fever and climate is also refuted politely here:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/190_05_020309/rus10887_fm.html
“…it is unlikely that rising temperatures alone will bring increased vector or virus distribution.”
This is very interesting as the UK environment agency is planning on letting some coastal areas flood to make marshland rather than fight “sea level rise”(spend money) caused by global warming.
I wonder if in several years time when the sky hasn’t fallen in will people be suing these government agencies for compensation for loss of family members to malaria etc.
Malaria was a common desease here in Piedmont, NW Italy (Turin is exactly at 45° N) at least until the end of XIX century.
Bur moquitoes need a wet environment to live, not just a “warm” one; I’ve seen mosquitoes of the “tiger” African specie at over 2000 mt here in the Alps, and they were pretty alive and biting!
And it’s well known that LIA was not only a “cool” period, but mainly a WET period; here in Piedmont, there are pedological (hydromorphic soils) and geological evidence of a net increase in the annual rainfall; in front of a -1.5 °C decrease in temperature extimated for the LIA, my ancestors were facing at least a +20-30% in rainfall: this led to a lot of catastrophic floodings, as well as a spreading of marshes.
There are many historical records about the occurrence of hydromorphic soils in in the “expertises”, a French word related to a kind of “field reports” written by the officiers of the “Corp du cataste”; it was a military corp in the French Napolenonic Army (that invaded NW Italy at the end of XVIII century), operating as “rural engineers” with the duty of measuring and checking (also by digging trenches and accurately describing the stratigraphy of the ground) the value of agricultural terrains in the occupied territories.
Just my 2 cents…..
Dario
I hadn’t realised WUWT was mainly a British website. Anyway on the subject of Midges and Mosquitos…
I once camped on Skye (Scotland) with my wife (for one night). The next morning and despite our extensive anti-midge technology she emerged from the tent with a face that looked like she had just emerged from a serious RTA involving a failed airbag. I look like that anyway.
In Kent we find that the mosquitos are worse during December and January. We are starting to get bites earlier this year, perhaps a sign of the winter to come?
One thing I have never been able to understand about mosquitos is the “slipper effect”. That is when removing ones slipper to swat the little blighters a successful “hit” results in the mosquito flying right across the room, somtimes twenty feet, and splattering against the wall. This provokes the questions:
1) Why doesn’t the mosquito splat against the sole of the slipper?
2) How can such a small creature with an enormous surface area to volume ratio fly at great speed, many times its “design speed”, when I presume it is not flapping its wings? It seems the mosquitos aerodynamic performance is optimised for “slipper events”. Does this have any implications for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution? I have never observed them engage in reproductive behaviour on the way to the wall.
Any insights on this matter will be greatly appreciated.
What about Admiral deGrasse and the French navy? Their presence at the mouth of the Chesapeake, blocking resupply and reinforcement and effectively completing the encirclement of the British, might have had something to do with the British surrender.
In addition to the late-ish 1700s being the Little Ice Age, malaria was indeed a huge problem in North America. I live in southern Illinois, and malaria used to be a huge problem here. The main reason it is not is because the local governments issue steep fines for things like old tires lying around and stagnant pools, and they also spray for mosquitoes all throughout the summer. People wishing to hike in the summer are encouraged to use DEET. Or they can put up with malaria or West Nile.
@Caveat Emptor:
“The colonists paid just 1/20th of what the folks back home were taxed at.”
You mean this isn’t the first time Americans have fought against taxes based on disinformation?
Let’s face it, the United States began as, and has always been, a tax shelter. 😉
If seems if we didn’t exhale the dreaded carbon dioxide, stink, get hot and wear dark clothes, mossies would have sniff us out some other way!
http://www.howstuffworks.com/mosquito.htm
Whoops, that’s “….have to sniff us out….”
@ur momisugly Richard S Courtney
October 19, 2010 at 8:26 am
OK I stand corrected in attributing the quote “Viking settlements in Iceland and Greenland became extinct “ to you instead of Mr. Reiter. Your quotation marks slipped by when I read your comment and I did not follow the link to the original source either, on first read, so please forgive that slip of the tongue ( or the pen ).
However you now say :
“Anyway, Reiter is correct.
He wrote the “Viking settlements in Iceland and Greenland became extinct “. They did.”
That is only half correct , the settlements in Greenland which were originally setup around around the year 1000 a.d. by people coming from Iceland and Norway lasted only for some 4-5 centuries ( see the wikipedia article on Eric the Red for a quick overview ) before being abandoned and thus can be said to have become extinct. However settlement in Iceland were never abandoned and Iceland´s capital Reykjavík stands where the first recorded settler choose to make his permanent home, the current population is considered be to mainly descendant from the Norsemen ( vikings ? perhaps or political refugees or both. ) who came to the live there in the decades from 870-930 a.d. So no extinction , though there were some close calls caused by epidemics and/or volcanic eruptions. Ergo Mr. Reiters statement is logically false and therefore incorrect , and that makes your conclusion about him being right in this matter also incorrect.
I know well that I said “the Icelanders had become extinct”, instead of “Viking settlements in Iceland … became extinct”, but being a a native Icelander to me that is one and the same as I am aware of the fact that the has not been any period since the Norsemen came here that there was any real extinction of settlements here most of our history from that time on is on the record and there is a full continuity in it to present time .
So yes, English is not my first language, but i am quite fluent and have no trouble reading, or speaking it, and it can not be blamed as a reason if I come across as being inexact, but must rather be ascribed to a loose/lazy writing style or maybe a “poetic license” or something . (:-D.
But enough of that, this was only a minor matter or OT in the context of the your first comment, but it stuck me as being little inexact, as explained above.