--- title: Scientists Have Identified the Actual Worst Year in History description: Historians and scientists have figured out the worst time in human history, based on new analysis of glacial ice cores. canonical: https://time.com/5460027/worst-year-history/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-20T17:20:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:06:45.866Z og:title: Scientists Have Identified the Actual Worst Year in History. And No, It's Not 2018 og:description: Climate catastrophes and disease made this era particularly bad for humans og:url: https://time.com/5460027/worst-year-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da401f5662e478e/69893f92fb4eaca434898449/iceland-volcano.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: ICELAND-VOLCANO-BARDABUNGA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Have Identified the Actual Worst Year in History. And No, It's Not 2018 twitter:description: Climate catastrophes and disease made this era particularly bad for humans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da401f5662e478e/69893f92fb4eaca434898449/iceland-volcano.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Have Identified the Actual Worst Year in History. And No, It's Not 2018 > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME The Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition The Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors. The Brief brings TIME's perspective to the day's most important stories, helping readers understand not just what is happening, but why it matters. It combines original reporting and analysis with the best of TIME, spanning politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=bfe1eac9-4252-489e-947a-198908996af1&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Ideas: Science Is Too Important To Be Silenced In The Trump Era [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Ideas: Science Is Too Important To Be Silenced In The Trump Era](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4dGVBI9w.m3u8) (2:17)  _Published 2018-10-10. TIME spoke with Dr. Jonathan Foley, an environmental scientist and outspoken defender of science in the age of Trump._  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 20, 2018 5:20 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 20, 2018 5:20 PM UTC 2018 has been a rough year for many. But we can be grateful for at least one thing [this Thanksgiving](http://time.com/5459966/us-forecast-poor-thanksgiving-2018/): It’s been worse. That’s what a team of scientists [and historians](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive) determined after looking back at humans’ history on Earth and identifying the year 536 AD as the absolute worst time to be alive, [according to CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/health/worst-year-536-scli-intl/index.html?). For one thing, there was a giant volcanic eruption in Iceland, with a resulting ash cloud that kept the northern hemisphere in the dark for 18 months, dropped temperatures to their coldest period and led to mass crop failure — and, of course, starvation. More volcanic eruptions followed. (The more recent [Icelandic](http://time.com/3291663/iceland-volcano-northern-lights/) and [Hawaiian](http://time.com/5277626/hawaii-kilauea-volcano-eruption-space/) volcanic eruptions seem relatively tame in comparison. Flight delays are annoying, but not catastrophic.) Then, just a few years later, the [bubonic plague](http://time.com/5312191/bubonic-plague-elmore-county-idaho/) took off across the Roman Empire from Egypt to Europe, wiping out as many as [50 million lives](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140129-justinian-plague-black-death-bacteria-bubonic-pandemic/) with its gruesome symptoms. The combination naturally led to a bleak economic environment, as starvation and disease took their toll on the population. While things improved about three decades later, they didn’t fully pick back up until about 640 — a full century later — when a “total economic transformation” took hold, according to Professor Christopher Loveluck, a co-author of a new study and educator at the U.K.’s University of Nottingham. [The study](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/alpine-icecore-evidence-for-the-transformation-of-the-european-monetary-system-ad-640670/0727B4230C5DA92634B6251B9FBD3898/core-reader), published last week in _Antiquity_, analyzes glacial ice from the Swiss Alps for evidence of atmospheric change and its effect on the financial landscape of early Europe, [confirming scientists’](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive) understanding of the unfortunate circumstances of 536 and subsequent economic and social shifts. So, yes, [climate change looms](http://time.com/5418690/why-ignore-climate-change-warnings-un-report/), wars [abound](http://time.com/5455507/saudi-war-yemen/) and a mysterious [polio-like disease](http://time.com/5440002/acute-flaccid-myelitis-cdc/) is posing a new threat, but take heart: at least we’re not living in the 6th Century AD. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] People talk about a kind of war on science, I don't sometimes like that word, but it is accurate, unfortunately. This administration has targeted certain areas of science, especially around the environment, especially around public health. Things that clearly have a kind of economic, financial, and political undertone to them, that favors some people who supported this administration. And that's unfortunate, because that means it's attacking things that are really protecting all Americans and protecting the most vulnerable. Protecting our environment, protecting our future and those things are crucial to the country's success [ UNKNOWN ] in the long term. [ MUSIC ] Interestingly, you don't see the scientists in the Pentagon who work on new missile systems being censored, they're fine. They're travel expenses are covered, everybody's good. But when suddenly it's about climate change or health, or other contentious issues, suddenly they're not allowed to speak. Not allowed to go to conferences. And there's really well documented evidence that a third of the scientists of the EPA, half the scientists of the Park Service, were told not to use the word climate change anymore. That's crazy! Climate is changing, it's like not using the word gravity or something. That's crazy to do that. I don't really care what kind of politics you have or what you listen to on the radio. I don't know a single American who stands up and says, I am pro censorship. I think other voices should always be silenced. I don't know anybody who truly believes that. And so I think when we kinda remember our roots as an American people Things like censoring people who you find inconvenient. Nobody really believes that's a good idea. And when you see science being silenced, you know that that's a bad idea. So scientists are really concerned but, if you really listen to them, they're not concerned about their grant dollars or about their Labs they were talking about the work that they do. That they want to do to serve the world around them. This is why people go into science this is why people become medical researchers, environmental scientists, people who work at the EPA. They're not doing this for money are you kidding me. They're doing it because they care. They do it because they want to serve their country and that's the best way they can do that. 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