The fact that there wasn’t any oral tradition about what happened there, despite it not being a terrifically long time before European settlement, mitigates in favor of the idea that humans make the same mistakes and fail to remember or learn from the mistakes of others. :’)
It’s an interesting civilization — and seems somewhat similar to the Maya.
The big question isn’t so much why it collapsed (all civilization do eventually) — but why it wasn’t eventually replaced with something at least as advanced.
We grow the bulk of our food in a desert today and the grains that we grow across the plains and midwest are most susceptible to destruction due to cold (Think little ice age).
We should be diversified in both region and the crops we grow.
Didn’t we see a post about there being a layer of ash at Cahokia
The last post at freerepublic suggested that fire brought down Cahokia
Epic Fire Marked ‘Beginning of the End’ for Ancient Culture of Cahokia, New Digs Suggest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3128274/posts