I have a fundamental question:
Q: Why, in first place, human race came and settled at a place where for half a dozen of months its -25 degC?
...and then gradually they have developed technology to counter it!!!
They use tons and tons of salt, infinite fuel to clean the roads, remove the snow, infinite energy to keep the heaters on so that the ducts are not blocked, backup generators if electricity fails, backup stored fuel barrels if the backup generator fuel is finished. :P
Not only this, cars cost more as they should be equipped with heaters, cold start technologies, intruments to clean/scrub the windshields. This white snow also raises the insurance cost! Houses have to have an additional floor..below the ground.. the basement.. where people will feel warm and hibernate in winters... house cost increases!....... and much more!
.....and when it comes, the snowtime, these same set of people fly to warmer places like florida!!!! WTH!
hahaha...
ReplyDeleteA rich man keeps a licensed gun in house just in case the house catches the attention of a thief... Yet they go to police for security
Bharich! Totally agree!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question:
ReplyDeleteNot the entire human race were agrarian cultivators. As the hunters went north, game was plentiful and water was easy to come across. Evolutionarily the entire race had to cope with the last ice age around 18000 to 21000 years ago when it was anyways very difficult to grow anything during the short periods of warmth so why not go north towards more hunting friendly grounds, potentially more wooded areas so that fruit (berries etc) could be gathered also in addition to hunting
Apart from that, I understand your plight, these winters are annoying for us who are not used to them :)
prasad, it makes sense that during ice age humans at that time would hardly be knowledgeable as to where ice would remain and where it would melt. But I don't agree with the fact that hunting was easy up north and not at equators. Animals were everywhere and so were plants and fish.
ReplyDeleteI feel it just happened that humans came to this area without even knowing that there will be always ice for long periods and probably were unaware of the warm places elsewhere in the world, they settled here.
Once they had settled and started hunting and finding food, shelter, clothing.. and then it was just the human inertia towards a change of place!
btw.. really amazing that you came up with numbers like 18000-21000 years at 7:39 in the morning!!! :P
I can give you references :) !!!
ReplyDeleteIt could be chance but I don't think so and so do many historians/anthropologists.
Aso !!