Pollution During the Middle Ages (and Today)


This week the students read the medieval stories of Nelly the Sniggler and Drogo the Tanner. First, though, we had to figure out what it means to "sniggle"!

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Some students decided that sniggling could mean snoring and giggling at the same time. Eventually, we discovered that sniggling refers to fishing for eels and frogs. It turns out that eels were a very popular food during the Middle Ages.

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Next, we learned that the process of tanning animal hides was an important technological breakthrough, because leather is more durable than rawhide.  Unfortunately, tanning produces a significant amount of waste, and medieval tanners often threw the waste directly into the streams and rivers.

Snigglers (like Nelly) did not like tanners. Snigglers thought the tanners were polluting the streams and hurting the eels and frogs. 


The stories about pollution during the Middle Ages led to a fascinating discussion about the ways that important technologies (on which we all depend) continue to cause pollution.  

The students discussed various types of pollution, and I asked them to choose one source of pollution or environmental damage that they think will be especially difficult to decrease.  I also challenged them to come up with a suggestion for how the government could contribute to "solving" this source of pollution. Here are some of their responses: 

Taylor: We should use solar-powered electronics, and we should use more electronics instead of paper for education and communication. We could also encourage people to have gardens and to raise animals at home.

Mason: We could try to make a better filter system for the smoke from factories.

Abby: We should make less things out of plastic and use more organic materials, because if they can decompose then the trash will turn into soil and help the environment.

Sophie G.: The government could encourage people to walk more and drive less.

Scout: We can't stop much of the carbon-release, but we can start giving more oxygen to the earth by putting more protective policies on forests and planting more real trees.

Nicholas F. and Spicer: The government could make a law against straws in restaurants.

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