In 1903, an unprecedented flood struck Kansas, wreaking havoc on homes, farmland, infrastructure,

and an entire trainload of butter.

The creamery sued the rail company for its lost cargo, but the railroad argued that they

shouldn't be responsible, since the flood had been completely out of their control.

The court agreed, ruling that the flood had been an “act of god.”

Courts around the world have actually been using the term since the 1500's to describe

unprecedented events that seem to come out of nowhere.

Today, you'll see “acts of god” mentioned in contracts, insurance policies, and a few

US environmental laws.

And, like in the butter case, you might hear a lawyer milking the term as a defense in

court.

To use the “act of god” defense, you don't have to prove that a god actually caused the

event, you just have to prove two things: one, that taking reasonable precautions couldn't

have prevented the damage, and two, that the damage was caused by a natural force with

no human influence.

But it's getting harder and harder to meet these criteria, starting with the reasonable

precautions.

Thanks to improving technology and scientific knowledge, we're increasingly able to predict

the size, scope, and path of destructive events, which raises the bar for what kind of “reasonable

precautions” might be required to stave off damage.

For instance, back in 1903, the railway had put the butter car on what seemed like high

enough ground to keep it safe, but they had little way of knowing how severe the flood

would be.

Today, with a lot more flood knowledge, they'd have to better prepare the butter for the

act of god defense to stick.

And the second criteria is also harder to meet because we're finding that an increasing

number of natural disasters do have human fingerprints on them.

For instance, human activities have led to the warming and rising of the ocean, which

almost certainly intensified Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and likely exacerbated Europe's 2015

heat wave.

In fact, scientists estimate that some of Sandy's catastrophic effects - like the

flooding of vital transit tunnels, which added more than ten billion dollars of damage - might

not have happened without the effects of human activity.

Since natural events like floods, droughts, and wildfires are happening more often and

doing more damage than they used to, we may actually be seeing more Act of God cases pop

up in court in the future.

But because we're becoming butter...I mean...better at predicting those events – and recognizing

our own contributions to them - the success of the act of god defense may soon be relegated

fully to the margarines.

Hey there!

2017 has been the best year for MinuteEarth so far.

We made more videos than ever for more viewers than ever.

And on July 20th, you guys combined to watch the most MinuteEarth content ever seen in

one day – you watched about 4 and a half years' worth of our videos!!

Whether you're a brand-new viewer or someone who's been tuning in since the very beginning,

we just want to say thank you for joining us!

And to our Patreon patrons and YouTube Sponsors, thanks for making *us* possible!

We'd love to hear from all our viewers - what were some of your favorite MinuteEarth moments

of the year?

What would you like to see more of - or less of - next year?

Let us know in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook - and thanks for watching!