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They burned wood and built their homes accordingly. Also, extended families all lived together and slept together so the combined body heat, along with the fire
by taylodl 4y ago
They burned wood and built their homes accordingly. Also, extended families all lived together and slept together so the combined body heat, along with the fire, and lots and lots of blankets, kept everybody warm. That's fine and all but we haven't been building houses that way for over 200 years and the people then deforested large swaths of Europe by burning so much wood, there simply isn't enough trees to burn to warm today's population.
- hotpotamus 4y agoI suppose better said would be that as a person who was born in the post-industrial era and lived my entire life in the sub-tropics of South Texas, I don't really have an idea of the lived experience of dwelling through a real winter in pre-modern times. (Though I did get a taste of it in February 2021).
- taylodl 4y agoYour homes in Texas are designed to rapidly dissipate heat, which is the exact opposite of what you want in a cold climate. That's another reason you folks got so cold. Also, there's basic strategies for dealing with power outages in subfreezing temperatures you guys didn't know about because you've never had to contend with that before. It was a perfect storm so-to-speak and sadly it cost some people their lives. Up here in the North we get a taste of living through a real winter in pre-modern times by camping in unheated log cabins in the winter. Fire is essential and even so we benefit from "modern" wood burning stoves - "modern" meaning stoves that came about in the early 19th century. Believe it or not it's fun to do that for a few days in the Winter, but that's a far cry from living that way on a daily bases.
- taylodl 4y agoAlso, you would be shocked to see how much wood you go through for heat!