Climate Change Doomed the Ancients (Bad History Alert)

New York Slimes ^ | 5/27/14 | Eric Cline

[mojito]

...Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a stalwart believer that global warming is a “hoax,” dismissed the report as a publicity stunt.

Perhaps the senator needs a history lesson, because climate change has been leading to global conflict — and even the collapse of civilizations — for more than 3,000 years. Drought and famine led to internal rebellions in some societies and the sacking of others, as people fleeing hardship at home became conquerors abroad.

One of the most vivid examples comes from around 1200 B.C. A centuries-long drought in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean regions, contributed to — if not caused — widespread famine, unrest and ultimately the destruction of many once prosperous cities, according to four recent studies.

The scientists determined the length and severity of the drought by examining ancient pollen as well as oxygen and carbon isotope data drawn from alluvial and mineral deposits. All of their conclusions are corroborated by correspondence, inscribed and fired on clay tablets, dating from that time.

Ancient letters from the Hittite kingdom, in what is now modern-day Turkey, beseech neighboring powers for shipments of grain to stave off famine caused by the drought. (The drought is thought to have affected much of what is now Greece, Israel, Lebanon and Syria for up to 300 years.)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Seems to me that all they are “proving” is that climate change is a natural event.

[Corporate Democrat]

If I remember correctly, what happened to the Hittites, Greeks and Egyptians was a systematic migration of ethnic tribes who came and eventually threw the region into the first Dark Age, very similar to what happened with the Romans and the German tribes.

[Boonie]

Yep...It was the SUV’s, the deisel gulping long haul trucks, and all those farting cows....

[Boonie]

oops..”i before e, except after c”

*diesel*

[seowulf]

Doomed the ancients? How can that be? No power plants...no coal production...no central heating...no air conditioning...no SUVs....

Don't forget low population as well; less than 100 million if I recall my ancient history classes from 30 years ago.

[mikrofon]

You’d get a more accurate rendition of history from the “Mr. Peabody” movie than the NYT ...

[mojito]

Ping.

[JimSEA]

Periodic climate change is the rule scientifically as well as historically. That’s life folks, no getting around it. Both globally and regionally, the climate changes for a multitude of reasons. Regional variations are common.

[1010RD]

I don’t know a sane person who doesn’t believe in climate change. On the other hand, I meet plenty of good thinkers who don’t believe that human beings in the modern world are causing it.

Who didn’t see this straw man running in from a mile away?

[Texan5]

Okay, it all happened before, but humans didn’t have the technology to deal with famine.

It looks to me as if the idiots just blew away their own argument that climate change is caused by man...

[Titus-Maximus]

Before the Middle Ages Warming Period, there was another warming period centered around the year 1 AD. This means the Romans were able to conquer their largest land area in the Empire during this warm period when the Alps were passable and the winters mild!

Interesting to note, it got a little colder in years 400-800, and this natural climate change possibly contributed to the decline, (along with a list of 200 other things, including plague.)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The science was settled, now the history is settled, too.

[TigersEye]

The author is a moron. There were no civilizations until the climate began to warm.

[mojito]

There were no civilizations until the climate began to warm.

But the mammoth hunting was great!

[Thapsus_epiphany]

Written for idiots. Famine occured about every 6 or 7 years throughout most of history. One occured in Russia several hundred years ago that killed about 500,000 people. Another in Ireland in the mid 19th century, a mere 160 years ago, that killed over a million Irish, and ultimately reduced the population from 8 million to 4 million, an attrition rate of 50%. There's no need to go back thousands of years to prove a point, most particularly a pointless point. REAL climate change did occur, but not at all what these morons would want to hear.
Twenty years before the Duke of Normandy conquered Anglo Saxon England, climate did change. Getting colder at the higher elevations, it forced the Highlanders in Scotland down to raiding cattle from lowland communities, and started a 700 year cycle of ravaging, raiding and war that continued until Bonnie Prince Charles’ defeat in the mid 18th century. This never ending conflict had an enormous influence on the history of England, Scotland, Great Britain, and the War of the Roses, It also had a GIGANTIC impact on the history of America, the four major waves of immigration from England, Scotland and the UK, the makeup of the armies that fought in America in the mid 19th century (the war of northern aggression, aka the Civil War), the nationality of those that settled the West, Texas, the Gold Rush, and many of their descendants who still reside there.
The brainwashed morons aren't actually interested in history that is true, or that matters in terms of reality. They are only interested in that which advances their ridiculous and juvenile crusade to “save” the planet. What a shame. The true story of REAL climate change is fascinating, has affected virtually every American that has ever lived, and will continue to do so, but they'll never teach it in schools. Brainwashed idiots, indoctrinating impressionable youngsters. It needs to stop!!!

[Popman]

Jared Diamond wrote an excellent book on the subject...

"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed"

Excellent until the last chapter where he starts blaming big corporations as the one of the most environmentally destructive forces in the world today....

Hence our coming demise...

[tet68]

If the ancients were doomed,where did we come from?.

[ThomasMore]

“One of the most vivid examples comes from around 1200 B.C. A centuries-long drought in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean regions”

All due to man made CO2!!! Al Gore said sooooo! /s

[MCH]

Imagine the excessive amount of CO2 expelled into the atmosphere due to the extra heavy breathing that results from exerting oneself to pilot one of these ancient beauties!

[a fool in paradise]

Ancient history PING