Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Medieval Europe’s Black Death Plague Origins from Volcanic Eruption Cooling Changing Trade Routes
How do we do a risk assessment on how a severely slowed AMOC will wipe out much of global food supply and lead to global famine?
How do we do a risk assessment on how a supervolcano eruption like Toba 74,000 years ago will disrupt humanity?
One way, is to look back into history and see what happened.
Here, I chat about the sequence of events leading to the Black Death in Medieval Europe that wiped out 50% to 60% of the population from 1346 to 1353 CE.
First there was a series of volcanoes that cooled southern Europe, forcing them to import grains from the east, near regions around the Azoz Sea and Black Sea. That staved off starvation in Europe, but unfortunately the grain ships carried rats and gerbils which carried fleas which carried the Yersinia Pestis bacterium which carried bubonic plague which then wiped out over 50 million people within 5 years or so.
So abrupt climate shifts can be very detrimental to human life...
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
References
Peer reviewed science paper (open source, free)
Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe
nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02964-0
Abstract
The first wave of the second plague pandemic, the Black Death, claimed much of Europe’s human population in just a few years after 1347 CE. While it is accepted that the causative bacterium Yersinia pestis originated from wildlife rodent populations in central Asia and reached Europe via the Black Sea region, reasons for the timing, spread and virulence of the onset of the Black Death are still debated. Here, we argue that a post-volcanic climate downturn and trans-Mediterranean famine from 1345–1347 CE forced the Italian maritime republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa to activate their well-established supply network and import grain from the Mongols of the Golden Horde around the Sea of Azov in 1347 CE. This climate-driven change in long-distance grain trade not only prevented large parts of Italy from starvation but also introduced the plague bacterium to Mediterranean harbours and fueled its rapid dispersal across much of Europe.
Wikipedia:
Yersinia Pestis bacterium causing the bubonic plague or "Black Death"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis
Wikipedia:
Black Death plague, wiping out 50 to 60% of Medieval Europe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
Wikipedia:
Lisk of Epidemics and Pandamics in Human History, both from largest to smallest, and chronological timeline
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics_and_pandemics
Google Earth: Sea of Azov
earth.google.com/web/search/Sea+of+Azov/@48.98252048,33.1191324,-883.42564809a,4683939.13342774d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CnoaTBJGCiUweDQwZThjNjNkNDNhMTYyMmQ6MHhjY2YxMWI1OWZhZGU4NjBhGZbUv9oHFEdAIWuuPy4WS0JAKgtTZWEgb2YgQXpvdhgCIAEiJgokCdVgJaUVEVLAEW253kfvIVPAGa9AIT3xH1nAIZYdSutSflzAQgIIAToDCgEwQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
Medieval Europe’s Black Death Plague Origins from Volcanic Eruption Cooling Changing Trade Routes
How do we do a risk assessment on how a severely slowed AMOC will wipe out much of global food supply and lead to global famine?
How do we do a risk assessment on how a supervolcano eruption like Toba 74,000 years ago will disrupt humanity?
One way, is to look back into history and see what happened.
Here, I chat about the sequence of events leading to the Black Death in Medieval Europe that wiped out 50% to 60% of the population from 1346 to 1353 CE.
First there was a series of volcanoes that cooled southern Europe, forcing them to import grains from the east, near regions around the Azoz Sea and Black Sea. That staved off starvation in Europe, but unfortunately the grain ships carried rats and gerbils which carried fleas which carried the Yersinia Pestis bacterium which carried bubonic plague which then wiped out over 50 million people within 5 years or so.
So abrupt climate shifts can be very detrimental to human life...
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
References
Peer reviewed science paper (open source, free)
Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe
nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02964-0
Abstract
The first wave of the second plague pandemic, the Black Death, claimed much of Europe’s human population in just a few years after 1347 CE. While it is accepted that the causative bacterium Yersinia pestis originated from wildlife rodent populations in central Asia and reached Europe via the Black Sea region, reasons for the timing, spread and virulence of the onset of the Black Death are still debated. Here, we argue that a post-volcanic climate downturn and trans-Mediterranean famine from 1345–1347 CE forced the Italian maritime republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa to activate their well-established supply network and import grain from the Mongols of the Golden Horde around the Sea of Azov in 1347 CE. This climate-driven change in long-distance grain trade not only prevented large parts of Italy from starvation but also introduced the plague bacterium to Mediterranean harbours and fueled its rapid dispersal across much of Europe.
Wikipedia:
Yersinia Pestis bacterium causing the bubonic plague or "Black Death"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis
Wikipedia:
Black Death plague, wiping out 50 to 60% of Medieval Europe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
Wikipedia:
Lisk of Epidemics and Pandamics in Human History, both from largest to smallest, and chronological timeline
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics_and_pandemics
Google Earth: Sea of Azov
earth.google.com/web/search/Sea+of+Azov/@48.98252048,33.1191324,-883.42564809a,4683939.13342774d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CnoaTBJGCiUweDQwZThjNjNkNDNhMTYyMmQ6MHhjY2YxMWI1OWZhZGU4NjBhGZbUv9oHFEdAIWuuPy4WS0JAKgtTZWEgb2YgQXpvdhgCIAEiJgokCdVgJaUVEVLAEW253kfvIVPAGa9AIT3xH1nAIZYdSutSflzAQgIIAToDCgEwQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
