Futility Closet

The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 was a disaster for the Dutch East Indies, but its astonishing consequences were felt around the world, blocking the sun and bringing cold, famine, and disease to millions of people from China to the United States. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review the volcano's devastating effects and surprising legacy. We'll also appreciate an inverted aircraft and puzzle over a resourceful barber. Intro: The Veterinary Record addressed an overlooked species in 1972. Goats like towers. Map: The 1816 summer temperature anomaly (°C) with respect to 1971-2000 climatology (data source). Sources for our feature on the Tambora eruption: Gillen D'Arcy Wood, Tambora, 2014. William K. Klingaman and Nicholas P. Klingaman, The Year Without a Summer, 2013. Angus M. Gunn, Encyclopedia of Disasters, 2008. Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders, Volcanoes in Human History, 2012. Jihong Cole-Dai et al. "Cold Decade (AD 1810–1819) Caused by Tambora (1815) an