Category: cold

01/25/07 06:35 - ID#37859

ancestors

i love our ancestors an immense amount. i know we have incredible wisdom that came from all their experiences.

yet i have no idea why on earth any of our ancesters would have ever decided to move to an icebox. it seems near impossible that (relatively) hairless mammals would have evolved in such a cold climate. so, the nomadic peoples MUST have come here and to other cold places. but i can't understand why. i guess there must have been more food, but the earth was not yet full enough of humans to make this necessary.

actually, when the europeans came over, why didn't they all just move to the south? most of the old school colonies were in the north. it really baffles me.

it's 7 degrees right now. feels like -9. that is way, way colder than anyone keeps their freezers. i'd stay inside if i could.

carolinian writes at 07:44:23 01/25/07 - Comment #14958: Just a few theories.

For starters, southern climates tend to have malaria, which is far more deadly than any cold spell. Also, the whole cold thing was kind of forced on the human race already. There was that ice age about 10,000 years ago which we as a species couldn't avoid; the humans that survived probably weren't bothered by Buffalo-like temperatures after enduring such a large freeze.

As for the south (U.S.-wise) they did come to the south. The first English colonies were in NC and Virginia in the late 1500's during the time of Queen Elizabeth.

imk2 writes at 07:30:47 01/25/07 - Comment #14956: i think the british settled further north than you'd like because the south was already taken, no? most of south and central america belonged to the spaniards. i think they controlled florida at that time as well.

because humans are capable of manipulating their environments very well, they are able to adapt to the most extreme environments such the arctic or in modernity, poverty. and because they migrated through from asia to north america via the baring straight, it's only natural that they would settle on the northern most parts of the continent first.

but to put it more simply, "man does because he can". why else would we put people in space?

metalpeter writes at 07:21:14 01/25/07 - Comment #14953: My guess would be that when they got here it was a forgein land. I'm also guessing it wasn't winter yet so they had no idea about it. They didn't know how to survive the winter with out fresh food with out the help of the indians. If that where true then would they really want to take a chance and move down south where there might not be anyone to help them, plus they had homes established. I'm just guessing really. But if you know you are safe here why move. Yeah eventully people did take trips out west but it wasn't easy. Or maybe there where hot sexy little indian girls to keep them warm all winter and they didn't want to give that up.