Mesopotamian Climate Change (8,000 Years Ago)

Geo Times ^ | 2-15-2004

[blam]

Ping. When did the huge fresh water lakes in North America collapse?

[BenLurkin]

Scientists have located the cause:

[Torie]

Accoring to Bill Bryson per his book A Short History of Nearly Everything, the planet is in a long term ice age. The ice age is punctuated by periodic warming periods that last around 8,000 years each or so. We are in a periodic warming period, that has been around for about 10,000 years or so, precisely the period when civilization emerged, and it is overdue to end. When it ends, it will snow a lot in Fairhope, and the ice will be back in Iowa, a thousand feet thick, and almost cliff like where it ends. Thus, Al Gore is worried about planetary temperatures perhaps rightly, but perhaps also in the wrong direction.

And there you have it.

PS: By the way, the planet had a billion years where there was no ice on the planet, anywhere, and then another billion years thereafter where it was all ice, 100% ice. The thinking is that the billion year cold snap ended when some massive volcanic eruptions happened, recreating an atmosphere, and jump starting the greenhouse effect. Ain't that interesting?

[Tax Government]

The last ice age peaked 25,000 years ago. Since then the habitable reasons have continued to change. North Africa was much more livable; we can assume it was more heavily populated, in relative terms, than now. The Bible's diaspora is probably the retelling of a huge migration that occurred out of North Africa and the Middle East, as the climate changed. That could have happened quickly, and caused large shifts of population by boat and land from the Mediterranean to as far as East Asia and the Americas.

People as separated as the Japanese Ainu and Basques may share common Mediterranean roots and have become separated as a result of the post-ice age climate change.

We know that several waves of immigrants reached the Americas pre-Columbus (excuse me, pre-Colon). So, they came because of population pressure, and may have come across both the Atlantic and Pacific.

The web is full of interesting speculation about this. One article talked about possible linguistic relationship between the central Mexican Indian language Nahuatl, still spoken now, and which was spoken by the Aztecs (related to several North American Indian languages, including Hopi, I think). The speculation is that there is a connection between it and ancient Egyptian. The clue to "seeing" this is to regard the "l", that Nahuatl inserts in many places, as something of a conjunctive or article. When those "l"s are removed, the correspondence between Nahuatl and old Egyptian morphemes improves (a lot). Without passing any judgment on the contention, it is very interesting to contemplate, and dovetails nicely with the idea that the North African culture was forced to emigrate.

So, yes, this article is talking about probable events. But the "big" story involves a larger timeframe and more of the world's population.

[Swordmaker]

If there is ANY benefit to the absurd Global Warming scare, it will be that archaeologists have been forced to examine their dearest, closest held absurd beliefs. While there is currently no evidence for "Global Warming" the evidence is mounting that catastrophism had much to do with the ebb and flow of history.

Perhaps, when this is over, uniformitarianism will be blessedly dead and we can start understanding exactly what our ancestors experienced and the forces that molded them.

[jpsb]

Fill me in would you please, 65 million years ago the earth was warm and TRex was walking around, when did the ice age or ice ages begin? How long did they last and are we still in one. Thanks. I'll google while waiting to here from you.

[Redcloak]

Yup... Just as I suspected: Time-travelling Republicans driving SUVs. That would explain all of the cuneiform Ws all over the walls and why the word "Haliburton" appears over and over again in the Code of Hammurabi.

[blam]

"When it ends, it will snow a lot in Fairhope.

No!! Not in Fairhope? Fairhope is frequently at the top of the list of best places to live in the USA.

Fairhope

[blam]

"So, yes, this article is talking about probable events. But the "big" story involves a larger timeframe and more of the world's population."

Great overview, you do get it. There is a connection between the language of the Olmecs (Mexico) and the Chinese of the Shang Dynasty. It is written in Chinese records that at the time of the Shang Dynasty collapse (coinciding with a worldwide catastrophe recorded in the tree-rings in 1150's BC) that 250,000 Shang Chinese 'took to the sea.'

[blam]

"While there is currently no evidence for "Global Warming" the evidence is mounting that catastrophism had much to do with the ebb and flow of history."

Exactly. Below is a link to some good examples.(the tree rings recorded many things)

Did Asteroids And Comets Turn The Tides Of Civilization?

[blam]

"Fill me in would you please, 65 million years ago the earth was warm and TRex was walking around, when did the ice age or ice ages begin?"

Sorry, my interest lie in the history of humans. I don't do dinosaurs.

[Tax Government]

This is a fascinating subject; thank you for posting the article.

Another article on FR recently discussed the ethnic evolution of China from a Chinese writer's perspective. The conclusions I remember are: 1) several thousand years BC there were Nordic Europeans in large numbers in China, and African-descended people also; 2) today's north Chinese population is a mostly a fusion of European and Mongol populations, and remains ethnically distinguishable from other populations in China.

The migrations could have been driven by climate change.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to spend 10 days in Beijing. I concluded their country is remarkably like the U.S. -- ethnically diverse, with remnants of the European and African contributions to the population still visible. The shared culture -- in the form of a wall, a border and a writing system, created unity. Like it does for U.S.

Thanks again for posting.

[jpsb]

I found the info, I was looking for the 1 billion year ice age that Torie mentioned, that did not sound right. Three 50-100 million year ice ages, currently 4 millions years into another one. 20,000 years from last mini event peak and it could be we are heading for another mini peak, not Global warming but a deep freeze.

[blam]

" I concluded their country is remarkably like the U.S. -- ethnically diverse, with remnants of the European and African contributions to the population still visible."

Yup. If you get the chance, read up on the Hakka, Xiongnu, Saka and the Yuezhi people

I love this stuff. Check out the thread linked below...especially my comment in post #30.

Kennewick Man Ruling - Politics Or Science

Then there's this: The Curse Of The Red Headed Mummy

[blam]

"it could be we are heading for another mini peak, not Global warming but a deep freeze."

I can remember in th 70's when that was the scare.

There's an interesting article in the Scientific American this month about 1/3rd of all living mass on the earth is underground in the bottom of the oceans...and has more impact on GW/climate than humans ever will.

[jpsb]

Is that the methene gas bubble theory? I read one theory that claimed methene gas was responcible for the first great extintion.

[ValerieUSA]

here's a ping-a-ling for you

[blam]

"Is that the methene gas bubble theory? I read one theory that claimed methene gas was responcible for the first great extintion."

Partly but, it's a lot more than that.

[Torie]

TRex did just fine in ice ages far colder than any man or cro-magnon man has ever experienced. TRex went down due to the asteriod that hit the Yucatan, along with most larger animal life on this planet. That is in Bryson's book too.