Study: Volcanic Eruptions Brought the Black Death to Europe
The Spin
Climate-concerned narrative
Volcanic eruptions around 1345 directly caused the Black Death pandemic by triggering climate changes that forced Italian merchants to import plague-infected grain from the Black Sea. The eruption created a domino effect — sulfate aerosols blocked sunlight, crops failed across the Mediterranean and desperate grain imports carried Yersinia pestis-infected fleas that jumped to humans within weeks of arrival. This rare confluence of environmental and social factors demonstrates how climate disasters can inadvertently introduce devastating pandemics.
Climate-skeptic narrative
The Black Death happened when it did because plague infrastructure was already established in Europe long before any volcanic eruption. While climate changes after 1345 may have influenced grain trade routes, major Italian cities like Milan and Rome avoided the plague entirely despite the same climate conditions, proving that local disease reservoirs and existing rodent-flea vectors determined outbreak patterns. Volcanic activity was merely one short-term factor among many long-established conditions that enabled the pandemic.