Posted on 01/16/2011 9:19:55 AM PST by lbryce
An extensive study of tree growth rings says there could be a link between the rise and fall of past civilisations and sudden shifts in Europe's climate.
A team of researchers based their findings on data from 9,000 wooden artifacts from the past 2,500 years.
They found that periods of warm, wet summers coincided with prosperity, while political turmoil occurred during times of climate instability.
The findings have been published online by the journal Science.
"Looking back on 2,500 years, there are examples where climate change impacted human history," co-author Ulf Buntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape, told the Science web Ring record
The team capitalised on a system used to date material unearthed during excavations.
"Archaeologists have developed oak ring width chronologies from Central Europe that cover nearly the entire Holocene and have used them for the purpose of dating artefacts, historical buildings, antique artwork and furniture," they wrote.
"Chronologies of living and relict oaks may reflect distinct patterns of summer precipitation and drought."
The team looked at how weather over the past couple of centuries affected living trees' growth rings.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Thats right, it was the Krakatoa eruption of 535 AD that caused it. You can clearly see it in these several decades of tree rings right here.
A major concern right now is that the Sun's solar activity has been not as active as anticipated, and that could trigger off another Maunder Minimum type cooling of the Earth, which could result in a more sustained Ice Age that could result in much of the higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere being under ice, which could really affect food production.
They have to justify their grants and Government funding..even if they have to come up with BS.
lol
“9,000 wooden artifacts” with no dates. That wood might have been cut 1000 miles away from where it was found. Trade DID happen in history.
These kooks will do anything to try to prove global warming is a threat.
It’s a natural phenomenon along with global cooling.
ROTFLMAO
Thats brilliant!
So, there’s hope for everybody who’s against political correctness?
Um.... I agree that the “global warming - the end of the world - we’re all gonna die” people are beneath contempt.
However, looking the growth of tree rings as a way to determine climate is reliable. You can determine what happened in the past by looking at the way the tree rings are laid down.
It’s also true that ancient people, living locally, could be heavily impacted by a bad spell of weather. I get my grapes from Chile and my apples from Washington state; the Romans were stuck with whatever was growing in their corner of the world. Of course they’d be hard hit by a change in the climate.
What makes this a barfer for me is the statement that people did better during spells of warm, wet weather - gee, which is exactly what the global warming people are predicting for our future. When they say they want carbon dioxide returned to preindustrial levels, they are saying they want colder, drier climate - which hurts people and civilizations.
But there’s a difference between trying to predict the future and seeing the evidence of the past. I can go outside my door, cut down a big spruce (by Alaska standards), look at the rings myself, and see clearly dry years and wet years, cold years and warm years. No doubt those Romans were hard hit by crappy weather. We’re in much better shape than they were, assuming the nuts on the left don’t get their way.
Its interesting. I agree that scientists use historical climate changes to try to force modern politicians to spend money on their causes. However, there is real value in looking at non-man-made causes for the fall or empires. Global climate change probably did play a roll in Western civilization’s rises and falls. So did disease. The collapse of the Eastern Empire and the surge of the Persians and Arabs into Egypt and the Holy Land can be linked in part to a devistating plague that wiped out from a quarter to perhaps half of the Byzantine population. Its fascinating research that, if done right, can really help us understand history.
Huh?
That's ManBearPig. You have to be a South Park fan to get it. ;-)
It has to do with Algore.
Yes, all true but as conjecture, as historical possibility, probability but not postulation.
LOL. I am so, so embarrassed, to have demonstrated such appalling ignorance. :-)
And what was the technological level of the Roman world, and the world as whole, at that time?
What were their capabilities to defend against, adjust to and recover from “climate change” and what our ours?
In today’s world if one nation that grows corn, or rice or wheat is having a drought, the world market price for that commodity goes up and farmers in every nation that grows that crop make a little more for it and the world finance and transportation systems, and government aid systems, work to get that commodity delivered.
Similar differences - between the era of the Roman empire and today - are true with regard to many other “ill” affects from “climate change”.
True enough, those differences are greatest between the era of the Roman Empire and the most developed nations of today. And, true enough, some nations are less advanced and less capable of responding to ill affects of climate change, on their own.
But, collectively and cooperatively, the world as whole is capable of defending against, adjusting to and recovering from any “climate change” that may have helped advance the demise of the Roman Empire.
Anyone’s attempt to use the era of the Roman Empire and climate change as a comparison of concern with the world today is ignoring, totally, the context of the capabilities of human societies today. It’s “junk science”.
I’m sure the arrival of the Huns and subsquent invasions by the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, etc, had nothing to do with it. Perhaps they were merely looking for a friendly beach to cool off at.
You are very close to being correct!.....
A period of cooling did help contribute to the downfall of the Roman Empire.
According to many scientists, the time of the Romans was much warmer than it is now, at least in that part of the world.
|
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe · |
|||
Antiquity Journal & archive Archaeologica Archaeology Archaeology Channel BAR Bronze Age Forum Discover Dogpile Eurekalert LiveScience Mirabilis.ca Nat Geographic PhysOrg Science Daily Science News Texas AM Yahoo Excerpt, or Link only? |
|
||
|
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · |
|||
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
