Climate Change on Ancient Civilizations
Previous climate change predictions have provided scientists, archaeologist and ecologists with information about the past and future of humans. These indications are backed up by scientific research based off of the physics of the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land and ice. In addition, many researchers have recently turned their focus to past civilizations and their downfall. With information from Mark Kinver’s “Roman Rise and Fall ‘Recorded in Trees’” studies show that from the demise of the Argaric society to the fall of the Mayan, and Ancient Roman Empire, climate change has played a key role in regards to civilizations collapse and nuclear annihilation.
Mark Kinver
According to Kivner, “warm, wet summers coincided with prosperity, while political turmoil occurred during times of climate instability.” Keeping this in mind, the study of tree growth rings has been linked to points in time where climate change has impacted the environment. Archaeologists have discovered a method of measurement among oak ring width. These methods have been used for dating artifacts, historical buildings, antique art and furniture. These patterns represent patterns of precipitation and of drought. From the studies done, researchers have concluded that during good seasons of growth, the rings tended to be broad. However, in poor growing conditions, the rings were consistently tighter. After researchers developed a chronology dating back to 2,500 years, scientists were able to link the affluence of past civilizations. This data has also been connected to the demise of many civilizations such as: the Argaric culture, and the Roman Empire. For example, during times of warm, wet summers during the Roman Empire,...
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...struction to society. With rising sea levels, heat waves, desertification, and disease outbreaks, the world will soon face an early ending.
Conclusion
In conclusion, climate change can be linked to times of prosperity and demise. Plenty of studies show that the changes in the climate have contributed to numerous conflicts in civilizations. A good example of a current political unrest takes place in Syria. Extreme drought is a key factor to the civil war currently in Syria. Even though there was already water instability, human-caused climate change made things drastically worse. Scientists assume that the drought will get worse in the following years. Keeping this in mind, is this a sign that the climate will be a repeat of ancient history? In addition, will the modern era withstand the climate change, or will it be sent to any early demise?
References
how old a tree is. As the tree grows each year, and becomes stronger, the rings build themselves up around
in recent years, evidence has mounted that unusual shifts in atmospheric patterns took place near the end of the Classic Maya period, lending credence to the notion that climate, and specifically drought, indeed played a hand in the decline of this ancient civilization.
Brian Fagan’s book The Little Ice Age, explores the history of climate and how Western Civilization adapted to it, or were adapted by it. Knowing how the short term climate affected different civilizations, Fagan then begins to deduct the long term effect and the role it played in the economy, and the social and political changes. Fagan understands the relationship humans have with climate, and how it is ever changing. He points out several scenarios for which climate could be seen as a key player, such as the Irish Potato Famine, or the Vikings migrations. He believes that climate has a major role in all significant historical events, such as the Fall of the Roman Empire, which we will explore in this essay.
Elizabeth Kolbert’s piece The Sixth Extinction immediately introduces us to the cataclysmic events that have shaped our world, and our own fragile place within it. As a highly regarded American journalist and a “visiting fellow of Williams College”, she is known worldwide as an expert in the topic of climate change (New Yorker).
In 18,000 the civilizations had to worry about a lot more than we do today. In 18,000 people suffered diseases without medicine, draughts that left no crops to eat, natural disasters that changed the world they lived in, and invasions of others. Today we do not have to worry about much because have government that takes over a lot of things, and even though we have natural disasters they do not seem as tragic as they use to be such as wiping out complete civilizations. We cannot really predict when every single disaster is supposed to happen, we never actually really could. We do today have the extensive use of computers and such to help us research and figure it out more. It seems as though ancient civilizations, such as the Mayans, Cro-Magnons, Paleo-Indians, Celts, Romans, and Chaco-Indians, had trouble with themselves. They had a hard time adjusting to their new environments and climates, and they were unable to handle natural disasters. It seems as though the climate change, from cold to warm and vice versa really affected the ancient civilizations and droughts were extremely effective of their growth.
Climate change will ruin the world as people know it and if people do not do something now, everyone will die. At least, this is David Wallace-Wells assertion in his article The Uninhabitable Earth in New York magazine. Wallace-Wells establishes the issue of climate change in a new way where if people do not start taking scientists’ warnings about it seriously, then all living things will die. Wallace-Wells’ robust and frightening images of the the effects of climate change, appeals to his audience’s sense of fear and worry about the planet, and utilization of staggering statistics about climate change all assist in his idea that the rising temperatures will cause dramatic and devastating consequences to life on earth.
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One of the most key examples of understanding human culture through archaeology is the topic of climate and the environment. As seen through history, there is an intricate relationship between the environment and life on earth. Through extensive research, archaeologists have the ability to take note of minor cultural changes that can be attributed to the environment during a particular time period. These changes include, shifts in methods of food collection, changes in the artwor...
Climate change is an inevitable phenomenon that is being experienced globally in various forms, such as temperature rise. Sea level rise, droughts, floods, hurricanes, landslides, etc. According to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC project, even with immediate implementation of mitigation strategies, global climate change will continue for decades. Climate change is inflicting serious consequences on human wellbeing and will continue to inflict damage in the future. It is estimated that global temperature will rise by 1.8 oC - 4.0 oC by the end of the 21st century (Izaurraade, 2009).
Climate change is one of the most serious and profound challenges we are facing right now. What is climate change? And how does it affect our lives? Right now there are many people do not believe climate change is real and climate change will have impacts on their lives. Climate change refers to the statistically significant change in average state of the climate over time. The greater the dispersion, the greater the magnitude of climate change, and the greater the magnitude of climate change, the more unstable the climate. The statistics of climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation are usually reflected in different periods. The length of change varies from the longest to the shortest. Climate change can cause by many factors.
The earth is a complex system, which continues to evolve and change. Climate change and global warming are currently popular in the political agenda. But what does “climate” really mean? The difference between weather and climate can be conveyed in a single sentence: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” Based on research of the geologic record, we know that climate change has happened throughout Earth's history and at present, ever-increasing evidence points to the roles that humans play in altering Earth systems. The Earth and its atmosphere receive heat energy from the sun; the atmospheric heat budget of the Earth depends on the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the planet; which has been constant over the last few thousand years. However present evidence seems to suggest that the recent increase in temperature has been brought about by pollution of the atmosphere, in particular the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide, mostly through Anthropogenic Forcing (human activity) and other various internal and external factors. I...
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Social ecology is the conceptual principles for knowing the outcomes and relations of the many diverse individual and environmental factors. Social ecology is defined as the study of people within an environment, which have influence on one another. It’s believed to be the earth’s societies reflection upon itself, exploring, discovering, and considering its future (Gutkind, 1974). Factors of social ecology may include the infirmities of age, an increase of population, natural disasters, technology and the growth of society. Within social ecology it is important to notice which people are unable to see the environmental crisis. This movement is placing all the responsibility for destroying the earth on humans as they are overpopulating the planet. There is no possible way of convincing all humans to change their way of life (Bookchin, 1995). However, rather have humans distinguish and eliminate previous forms of control and destruction (Bookchin, 1995). The main standard of social ecology is the fact that problems occur from inherent social issues (Dogan, Rokkan, 1974). These problems cannot be understood without acknowledging the social issues. The development, of certain technologies, social characteristics, cities and science all has caused a vast majority of problems to the earth, which leads back to humans.