Benedictow, author of The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever. The Black Death is a plague that spreads from rats that carry fleas invested with the bacterial strain called Yersinia Pestis. In the 14th century, the plague spread quickly and damaged society. People fled from their homes to move to the countryside away from crowed cities in fear that they would catch the plague. Parents abandoned their family and even left their children to die alone if they caught the plague. “For medieval authors, the abandonment of children by their parents meant the specter of a society that had come unraveled at its core,” writes Shona Kelly Wray, in Children during the Black Death. Doctors and civil servants refused to care for the ill. The Catholic Church, which had great power in Europe at this time, lost many followers whom did not believe in a higher power any longer due to the plague. Surprisingly, the bubonic plague is still affecting people today. There is an average of seven bubonic plague cases each year in the United States alone. “According to the new study, which tallied the reported cases of plague around the world between 2000 and 2009, more than 20,000 people became infected during that time”, reports Tia Ghose, in her article Bubonic Plague Still Kills Thousands. In …show more content…
Global warming and environmental toxins are altering our ecosystems and if not stopped, it can cause many places in the world to become unlivable due to the environmental damage of rising temperatures, harsh weather and dangerous pollutants. Global warming has already caused sea levels to rise. Sea levels rising can potently cause areas near the ocean to have access flooding and even become completely submerged. People who live in or near coastal areas would be victims of flooding and could lose their homes and businesses. The earth’s rising temperatures has also caused extreme weather. If this trend continues, frequent and severe heat waves are predicted and can cause many desert areas to become unlivable. According to These Cities May Soon Be Uninhabitable Thanks to Climate Chang, an article written by Justin Worland “by the end of the century heat waves in Doha, Abu Dhabi and Bandar Abbas could lead to temperatures at which humans physically cannot survive over a sustained period of time by around 2100”. Environmental toxins caused from pollution are negatively affecting human health. If we do not start to reduce and reverse the amount of pollution in the water and air, human health can vastly decline. Air pollution is known to increase the risk for diseases such as respiratory and heart diseases. As reported by Stacy Simon in World Health Organization: