Beraishis 8I Changes to the World After the Mabul

We have a tradition that before the flood it was always springtime. the seasons never changed. A person would only need to sow the fields once in forty years. The earth was not yet split into continents and so it was possible to quickly travel across the world (ב”ר לד:י”ג) . The same Midrash  implies that the reason people lived much longer was the perfect weather.

Before the flood the world was in a state of perpetual bloom. People grew rich and old, living in luxury. Their selfish ways (חמס) were perpetuated by the good life they lived and by their ability to pass this on to the next generations.

This was put to an end by the flood. Before the flood, there were changes in seasons but they occurred one after the other affecting all of civilization at the same time. When man was corrupt, all of nature responded at once to all of mankind. Now the continents would be split. All of these seasons would occur at the same time in different places of the earth. Here night, there day. Here winter, there summer…

This would create a new form of educating mankind. Ever since the flood man has been in a constant state of dependence. Now there are frequent climatic and meteorological disturbances.

As a result of man living in varied climates and terrains, there developed many civilizations, each an outgrowth of the locations people lived in. The division of the earth into continents obstructed the routes of travel (which would take a thousand years for man to overcome by artificial means). This would hinder the spread of evil. If one civilization became evil, it could not spread easily to another.

As a result of the rapid changes in climate, the human life span was shortened. This would ensure that evil would not rule forever. The worst tyrants can not rule for more than fifty years. In the new reality the wicked die off quickly and an upright generation takes its place.

Beraishis 8:22
pages 215-219