A Real Apocalypse Takes a Long Time

Today, I’m not thinking about politics or elections.

I’m thinking about the year 536 CE.

Sure, the entire world has never ended before—not all at once. Depending on how you define words like "world" and "end."

But...

There have been plenty of times in history when it sure tasted like the end of the world, where the future didn't look so bright, where everything might as well have ended for millions of people. If you die in a pandemic or a climate disaster, or you lose everything you own, then your world has ended.

It tastes like the end of the world now.

According to historians, the absolute worst time to be alive was 536-550 AD, when three different volcanic eruptions blotted out the sun across most of the planet. During the first one, the sky went dark for 18 months. It snowed in the summer. An ash sky lit a cycle of droughts and floods that upended agriculture. Crops failed all over the world, and then starvation began.

Societies collapsed.

Historical records from Rome to Japan reference these events, lending credibility to the idea that something awful happened in the middle of the sixth century, and that it lasted for more than a decade. Archaeologists have found a layer of ash virtually everywhere on the planet dating back to that period. They've also discovered abnormalities in tree rings around the world.

Nobody was spared.