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1. there were far less people with far less industry, so a lot of the problems we have didn't exist yet 2. there was, in some regions, lots of living indoors w
by jackmott42 4y ago
1. there were far less people with far less industry, so a lot of the problems we have didn't exist yet
2. there was, in some regions, lots of living indoors with fires and candles and sleeping with animals, because they had no other choice, and they died in their 30s or 40s at best anyway so it didn't really matter. Probably breathing soot all the time while indoors was part of the reason they died in their 30s and 40s a lot though?
3. In the distant past a moderate IQ drop due to particulates wouldn't have been as big of a hindrance to survival and success as in the modern world, perhaps. I see lots of hints that even small shifts in a societies IQ in the modern world has pretty dire consequences. I'd love for that to be investigated more.
- medstrom 4y agoRe. point 2: I wish I had sources for this, but as I understand it, few adults have ever died in their 30s and 40s. We hear the average age was 35 in some periods of history, but I don't know how many scientists even said that, maybe it was reporters misunderstanding the point of the number, because to laymen it's a weird way of saying that "child mortality was high and disease was common". Once you were an adult and you didn't catch the plague, you lived to 60+.
- PeterisP 4y agoOn the other hand, air quality was a one part of why back then 60 was considered old age, comparable to what we think of 80-year-olds nowadays.