Did they not have fires, floods and droughts 200 years ago?
Worst recorded drought was 100,000 years ago
"By extracting sediment cores from Lake Malawi, one of the largest and deepest lakes on Earth, scientists determined in 2007 that sub-Saharan Africa experienced a series of mega-droughts from 135,000 to 90,000 years ago. Rainfall was so scarce, in fact, that the lake’s water level dropped some 2,000 feet,"
https://www.history.com/news/7-withering-droughts
Only 1 out of the top 7 occured recently.