Scientists Debate Role Climate Change Plays In Creating Civilizations

Dispatch.Com ^ | 7-4-2006 | Bradley T Lepper

[blam]

"That's small stuff. A mile high wall of water is a whole 'nuther thing!"

Most people don't realize how violent was the end of the Ice Age and the resultant redistribution of weight. Now, mix in a few asteroid/comet impacts and you've got a real mess.

[muawiyah]

Were you aware that about 11000 years ago a volcano opened up next to what is now Lake Superior?

Apparently this volcano is kept quiet as long as the glacier is in place, but when it melts, the pressure is off and the volcano wells up. After a few hundred years or so the earth rebounds enough to reduce the pressure enough to turn this thing off.

Opal-like materials are formed out of the chemicals leached from the magma. Local artisans turn them into junk jewelry of the sort sold in rock and crystal stores around the country.

I think this particular volcano is about the only one in the world not clearly on or near a major fault zone.

[DBrow]

Good point, thanks.

[DBrow]

You know, SampleMan, that was pretty much the official worldview until about 1840- nothing changed, or, if it did, it was very very gradual.

Aren't there references in the Bible about the Earth not changing, nor the "heavens"?

I have seen quotes from Thomas Jefferson in which he doubted that "rocks fell from the sky", that was the depth of the unchanging Earth view.

Now, of course, the Earth will change and kill us all if we don't elect a Democrat president and cease capitalism, that's how fast things are changing on Earth.

[blam]

"Opal-like materials are formed out of the chemicals leached from the magma. Local artisans turn them into junk jewelry of the sort sold in rock and crystal stores around the country."

Didn't know about the Lake Superior volcano. Does it have a name?

There are diamonds in Arkansas isn't there?

[muawiyah]

They call it the "Minnesota Opal". Most notes on the internet concerning the "volcano" point to the original crater as being what is now Lake Superior itself.

The dates given for everything associated with the volcano are all over the place.

Arkansas also has a diamond field. There are "hot springs" in Arkansas, and "hot springs" in Southern Indiana. The heat comes from somewhere Fur Shur.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

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[darth]

I'll contribute a hypothesis: Humans developed a pastoral lifestyle before agriculture by herding sheep and goats. Subsequent overpopulation, overgrazing, and clearing of forests by fire denuded higher elevations. Floods of silt then made river valleys attractive for seasonal planting of grain for bread and beer brewing. Voila! Civilization!

[ASOC]

"To qualify as a civilization, a society must have all or most of the following characteristics: cities with large populations; a hierarchical social organization, with a king, pharaoh or president at the top of the organizational chart; an economy based on agriculture; monumental architecture; and a system of record-keeping. "

Where does beer come in? You gotta have beer to count as civilized - I mean - isn't brewed spirits just the first step in civilization? Next to pickling.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"You gotta have beer to count as civilized - I mean - isn't brewed spirits just the first step in civilization?"

There's a theory that the discovery of beer led directly to the creation of civilization.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0424_kurtbeer.html

In another version of this theory I recall; the nomadic life was good for men -- not so easy for women. Excluding beer, agriculture was a better deal for women than men. Beer was the incentive necessary to turn men from hunters to farmers.

[blam]

"In another version of this theory I recall; the nomadic life was good for men -- not so easy for women."

Men were the hunters, women were the gatherers.

Women still go 'shopping'(gathering) today even when they don't need anything or even know why they're shopping.

[ASOC]

As it is even today....


LOL

[blam]

Stone Age Sites Found Under North Sea (8,000BC)