The Effects of Climate Change on Ancient Civilizations Essay

The Great Warming is a book written by Brian Fagan that encompasses the environment and history pertaining to most of the human race between A.D. 800 and 1300. Not only does the book give a new dimension to world history by looking at climate history, but it also provides the reader with an ominous warning of the impact that climate change may have on the human race in the future. Fagan references many civilizations in the book that were affected by the rise in surface temperatures. He goes in depth with them individually to show just how worldwide this climate change was, how each civilization adapted or failed to adapt, and who the winners and losers were during this medieval warming period.

The Salem Witchcraft trials was an outrageous event that began in 1692, and ended May of 1693 seeing the execution of many people. Unfortunately most of the victims of this phenomenon were women. For the most part these women were accused for very trivial reasons, such as for being widowed, being of old age and living alone, or for simply collecting herbs and other plants. During this time in history women and men were treated very differently both as they should contribute in the home and in society, this would have presented reasons as to why women were predominantly accused of witchcraft, along with any religious beliefs. The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place at a time of a patriarchal society, the roles of men and women were different, along with how they were treated overall in society. This contributed to the stereotype of women being the ones predominantly associated with witchcraft.

After finding these results, the authors linked the growth and collapse of the Maya civilization directly to the climatic results they found. Although the Cariaco can not totally explain the relationship between climate conditions and the Maya collapse, it still supports that the changes in rainfall was an important factor. They first suggest that the enlargement of the Maya civilization between 550 and 750 A.D. was due to relatively wet conditions. The Ti concentrations are much higher right before the Terminal Classic Collapse period. Not only were they expanding, but they were expanding to the limit of what the environment can sustain making them largely susceptible to drought. Between 750 and 950 A.D., the

Estetica de Las Proporciones En La Naturaleza y Las Artes (Spanish Edition) (Spanish) Paperback use pre formatted date that complies with legal requirement from media matrix – August, 2000

In the next few paragraphs, one will see the evidence provided by a variety of archeologists and paleoclimatologists onto how climate change caused the breakdown of the beautiful society.

So the lives of at least the survivins hunterFatheresaren't nastyand brutish,even though farmers have pushed them into some of the world's worst real estate.But modern hunter-gatherersocietiesthat have rubbed shoulders with farming societies for thousands of vears don't tell us about conditions befor€ the agricultural revolution. The progressivist riers is reallv making a claim about the distant past: that the lives of primitive people improved when they snitched from gathering to farming. Archaeologists can date that sv!'itchby distinguishing remains of wild plants and animals from thoseof domesticatedonesin prehistoricgarbage dumps. Horr' can one deduce the health of the orehistoric garbagemakers.and therebydirectly test the progressi\ist vierv? That question has become answerable onlv in recentvears,in part through the newly emerging techniquesof paleopathology, study of signs of the dirase in the remainsof ancientpeoples. In some lucky situations,the palmpathologist has almost as much material to study as a pathologist todav For example, archaeologistsin the Chilean deserts found well preserved mummies whose medical conditionsat time of death could be determinedby autopsv. And feces of long-dead Indians who lived in dry cavesin Nevada remain sufficientlywell preserved to be examinedfor hookworm and other parasites. Usually the only human remainsivailable for study are skeletons, they permit a surprising numbut ber of

The Great Warming by Brian Fagan claims that environmental changes (most commonly prolonged droughts, El Niños, and La Niñas during the Medieval Warm Period) affect human civilization, including human’s trading abilities, overall movement, and quality of life. He examines the world’s ancient climate warming, known as the Medieval Warming, between the 10th and the 15th centuries, also mentioning the preceding and succeeding centuries. Fagan gathers his research using studies conducted by archaeologists, historians, and paleoclimatologists. Throughout his book, he refers to direct methods to study climate change, such as instrument records and historical documents, and indirect methods, such as ice, deep sea cores, coral records, and tree rings. Fagan digs into the rise and fall of multiple civilizations around the world as an effect of The Medieval Warming Period. As well as examining civilizations across the world, he attempts to connect the climate change patterns during The Medieval Warming Period to the current global warming faced today. The Great Warming discusses positive and negative connections between climate change and human civilizations across the world, starting in Europe and working its way into Asia, North America, South America, Africa, and even covering the arctic ice caps; however, throughout the book, Fagan has a hard time connecting his various ideas back to one main topic and can easily stray from his point about the effects of climate change.

The domestication of plants and animals lead to great change in the development and structuring of communities, as the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was slowly replaced by permanent settlements of farmers and villages. We can see that the communities varied greatly dependent on their local ecology, the resources available, and the time period within which their community was based. The road to agricultural way of life in the MIddle East is characterized by Four distinct stages. It was during the Kebaran period, and Geometric Kebaran in which hunter-gatherers began to utilize the plant and animal resources of the region. Architecture became a prominent feature of the Natufian period, as communities began to transition to village life from

Webb E, White C, Longstaffe F. 2013. Dietary shifting in the Nasca Region as inferred from the carbon- and nitrogen-isotope compositions of archaeological hair and bone. Journal of Archaeological Science

The world has many years existing in this galaxy and every day we see that is changing more and more but not in a very good way that it can end in the extinction of the planet earth. “Earth Hasn’t Heated Up This Fast Since the Dinosaurs’ End” (Lavelle). Carbon is growing so fast in the atmosphere faster than in the past 66 million years since the dinosaurs went extinct (Lavelle). All the presidents hold a position of power that could change this big problem that the planet is having, behind this problem there is other problems that are causing a much bigger problem in all the country. “By year 2100, the average temperature will rise by 5.8 degrees as a result of global warming. The Arctic ice is melting rapidly. By 2040 the region is expected to have a completely ice-free summer, or even earlier. Since 1880, the average temperature has risen by 1.4-Fahrenheit degrees” (Rinkesh). Humans are the one in power of this planet, they are often making some decisions, but they do not know if that is going to hurt the planet. Also, is because humans are selfish. These decisions often include manipulating the system of other country, how they work, what products they can make, how to get benefit from that country, and etc. Also, taking control and/ or credit over other countries work. Some countries are taking very serious the Global Warming problem, so the other countries want a prove of how are they helping to fix this problem. Many countries have agreements with other countries that

Earth has experienced many episodes of dramatic climate changes with different periods in earth history. There have been periods during which the entire planet has been covered in ice and at another time it has been scorchingly hot and dry. In this regards, earth has experienced at least three major periods of long- term frigid climate and ice ages interspersed with periods of warm climate. The last glacial period which current glaciers are the result of it, occurring during the last years of Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years age (Clayton, 1997). Indeed, glaciers present sensitive indicators of climate change and global warming and by estimating and monitoring the dynamic evolution of these ice masses, several

What we are doing to stop burning fossil fuels and help the environment is everything we

“Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they from their parents. It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the same world” (Richard Branson). This quote is a brief rewording of the issue we have today with global warming. For those who are not aware of what global warming is, it is when too much carbon dioxide is added into the atmosphere. Global warming can cause sever hurricanes, intense weather, and many other natural disasters. For example, the lack of protection to our species and natural resources has led to many conflicts around the world. The lack of conservation of natural resources and need for habitat protection has had a major impact on the environment also.

Climate is inherently variable. Climate changes from place to place and it varies with time. The world now faces one of the complex and important issue it has ever had to deal with: climate change. Climate change today is one of the biggest concerns of human beings on the planet and the effects of climate change are undeniable and it may cause environmental, social, and economic threats to the planet. We already know and easily can highlight several signs of climate change. They are: rising global sea level, widespread melting of snow and ice, rapidly changing ocean and global temperatures, and other signs. So, what are the causes of climate change? Is it natural or do human beings cause it? Well, in both cases we would be right. The climate change can be affected by natural factors, such as solar output, volcanic eruptions, and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Also, climate change can be affected by human activities such as, deforestation, burning fossil fuels, causing ozone hole, and building mass destructive weapons and using them on earth that causes a huge radioactivity on earth. Currently, the threat of global climate change does not threaten some nations to the extent of others. Compare the United States with the rest of African countries. We live in prosperity and in much easier time than the rest African countries. Most African countries cannot grow anything on their lands because of climate change. At the end, climate change might affect everyone on

Climate change could be described as any process that causes adjustment to climate system be it a volcanic eruption to a change in the solar activity. Today, however, the phrase is most often used as climate change caused by humans. Climate change is also used commonly with another phrase – "global warming" – reflecting scientific observations of strong warming trends over the past century or so. Indicators like rising sea levels, retreating snow cover and glaciers, longer growing seasons and shifting wildlife has alarmed scientific community unanimously agreeing that the earth has warmed in the last century. Experts however are of the opinion that climate change is a more accurate phrase than global warming as the latter is just one component affecting the larger climate systems of the earth.