Did climate change cause societies to collapse? New research upends the old story.
A report recently published in the journal Nature argues that an obsession with catastrophe has driven much of the research into how societies responded to a shifting climate throughout history. That has resulted in a skewed view of the past that feeds a pessimistic view about our ability to respond to the crisis we face today.
“It would be rare that a society as a whole just kind of collapsed in the face of climate change,” said Dagomar Degroot, an environmental historian at Georgetown University and the lead author of the paper. The typical stories of environmentally-driven collapse that you might have heard about Easter Island or the Mayan civilization? “All those stories need to be retold, absolutely,” he said.
yes, lets discuss the rise and fall of Greenland, and the viking colonies there…
note that all of these stories are ones of Humans not being able to adapt to a changing situation in the time available
I have read – may be true maybe not, but it makes sense to me – that the Vikings never actually colonized Greenland. They went there seasonally to hunt walrus, which was very valuable for ivory. When ivory from Africa became widely available, and was much cheaper, they stopped going to Greenland because it wasn’t worth it anymore.
Civilizations are murdered by their own parasitic elites—gangsters styling themselves nobles and con artists styling themselves priests of any God but the Real One, living large on taxes and tithes.
Faced with serious challenges, the elites invariably stand in the way of any solution that might inconvenience them personally, preferring to shield themselves from its effects and either hope it goes away or use the excuse to persecute a scapegoat. When they start missing meals themselves, it’s usually the beginning of the end.
“Climate change” is just the excuse used when even historians trained in western universities can’t blame a country’s downfall on Jews (sorry, “capitalism”) and still keep a straight face.
Diddley, That statement,
“Faced with serious challenges, the elites invariably stand in the way of any solution that might inconvenience them personally, preferring to shield themselves from its effects and either hope it goes away or use the excuse to persecute a scapegoat.”
Pretty much sums up any government at any time, from the middle ages to now.
nicely stated.
Our father had a great line “Change is going to happen whether you like it or not. So you better be prepared to make change work for you!”
I have experienced much change in the course of my 69 years. And there will be even more change in the next 15-20 years before I die. I look forward to the new experiences.
Big Momma, I am tired of new experiences, I have lost my tolerance for stupid.
The fate of Rapa Nui is a famous one. Attributed to native destruction of their environment, it was in fact the result of slave raiding, uncontrolled disease infestation by European whaling ships, and the deliberate destruction of all vegetation as much as possible by a gang of Peruvian mercenaries. The latter deported the entire population to the Atacama mines as slave labour until Peru was defeated by Chile in the Pacific War 1879-84.
It was convenient for that fraud Jarred Diamond to blame the fate of Rapa Nui on native mismanagement of their environment. Diamond was a liar.
The evidence for the Greenland Norse having “died in place” there in Greenland is rather sparse–Everything that was portable and of value was gone, and much evidence of a careful departure in terms of how they left things. There isn’t some Greenland Pompeii, with dead bodies and food left out like the Mary Celeste, so quite how anyone came to the conclusion that they all died there vice having gotten on boats and left for other places like Iceland and Norway…?
Hell, the evidence we have for the “last marriage in Greenland” is the couple’s attestation that yes, they did get married–In Greenland. Which they made to an Icelandic court, if I remember properly.
There may have been a few left behind, but the evidence for a general “die-off” simply isn’t there. More than likely, they gradually left as the Greenland economy and reason for being (which was mostly walrus ivory and other such things to trade with Europe) wound down. If someone were to bother doing genetic testing on the skeletal remains we have, and then go looking in Scandinavia, my wager is that you’ll find most of those lineages likely still exist today. Best evidence for the departure, as opposed to dying off, is that there is no remnant trace of the Norse in the local population or any sign of a Norse community. If they’d have had no other choice, they’d have adapted one way or another, if only as trophy wives for the Inuit. The fact that they didn’t kinda indicates that they likely just pulled up stakes and went back to Scandinavia.
Jared Diamond is a lousy scientist–All you have to do is read his encomiums about the high intelligence of the locals when discussing Papua New Guinea, and you can recognize what a twat he really is.
Kirk, Sorry, I just can’t picture a strapping Viking as a “trophy wife” for the Inuit, lol!
Actually, that particular combination could have been very beneficial to the locals.
Civilization collapse porn sells. Anything else is boring. Remember … we live in the make-believe = “reality” era. And I’m not sure our civilization will survive THAT unnatural disaster
I notice the source for this link, Grist magazine, appears to be all in on the Gerbil Worming fraud.
Why did the civilization crumble on Easter island? War. They divided into two warring groups and thus were too busy to make any more statues.
Oh, and they recreated the way to move those heavy statues, using nothing but rope, no need for aliens or anything.