Implication of Climate on Human Development and History
Development
Michael Stecyk
1
Overview
• Early hominin development and evolution
• Pleistocene migration out
• Neolithic revolution
• Antiquity through the Middle Ages
• Industrialization and Revolution
• Role reversal: Ecocide and Al Gore
2
Recipe for Life
1) Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, etc.
2) Lightning/cosmic debris/deep sea vents 1
3) ????
4) Pr
3
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/region.cfm?rnum=02
Africa 2 4
Early Human Development
• Glacial expansion/contraction and sea levels
• African coasts
• Isolation
• Selection for intelligence? 2 5
http://trendsupdates.com/wp‐content/uploads/2009/06/early‐human‐script1.jpg
http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0429‐neanderthalsmated‐humans/7803121‐1‐eng‐US/0429‐neanderthals‐mated‐humans_full_380.jpg
Paradise Lost
• Heinrich events—increased freshwater flux
from glaciers
• Ocean density change; thermohaline
circulation altered
• Decreased vegetation in north Africa
• Southern Arabia enters lush pluvial period
• Hominin dispersal enabled 3 6
Whereas Food is Good
• Neolithic Revolution ~8,000‐5,000 BCE
• Areas with favorable climate and soil
• Post‐glacial CO 2 levels (from 180 to 270 ppm)
aided domestication 4
• Diverse economic systems likely determined
by these conditions 5 7
Fertile Crescent and Permanent
Settlements
• Probable first site
production 6
• Food surpluses and storage
possible
• Craftsmen and skilled labor
• Barley, other grains
• Alcohol and domesticated yeast 7
• …population increase
http://generation13.net/seaisle/imagesSI/FertileCrescentmap.gif
8
The Iron Age and the Rise
• Warm temperatures, consistent aboveaverage
precipitation (until ~250 CE)
• Ideal conditions for Roman Kingdom and
Republic
• Temperature depression ~50 BCE 8
• Imperial Rome and the Caesars
9
Trouble for Rome
• Large climate fluctuations
• Political, social, economic
hardship
• 3 rd century: barbarian
invasions, hardship in Gaul
• Constantine and Valentian,
making cool rain 8 10
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_131dsm4xhS8/TFhacVg1CxI/AAAAAAAADKw/lO_MAEFhePc/s1600/NeroCircus.jpg
http://brianakira.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/constantine‐constantinople.jpg
Fall
• 6 th century: Near‐equatorial volcano
• Above‐average precipitation rapidly declines
• Hemispheric cooling
• Justinian plague and other epidemics
• Food shortages 8 11
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRbIVkPUnrat2uIyhElM5Kmw66EnYGstBWXYAp4BkONUDYfIbgsFA&t=1
http://img1.newser.com/square‐image/109694‐20110331174754/climate‐change‐linked‐to‐fall‐
Family Feudalism
• 9 th century: conditions similar to Roman
Period
• Reduced climate variability
• Feudal estates—pr
• Norse colonies and exploration 8 12
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_02/Vikings_468x364.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/4257122272_960361a103.jpg
…Problem?
• Temperature decline in 17 th and 19 th centuries
• Little Ice Age
• Black Death
• Thirty Years’ War
• Viva La Revolución!
• Settlement abandoment 8
• Britain: wet and cold
http://paradoxdgn.com/junk/viewing/avatars/trollface.jpg/
13
THE FUTURE
Presented by Great Britain
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M7KkIQvB3RI/THBxGLeAjhI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/wRaggnRZd‐E/s400/IndustrialRevolution.jpg
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Industrial Revolution
• What would you do in this kind
• Innovate! Age
• Textiles, steam power, metallurgy
• Fossil fuels used on a large scale
• Wealth can be created 9 15
Side Effects
• Urbanization—culture, more innovation
• Improved farming techniques
– Greenhouses and controlled climates possible
– Synthetic fertilizers
• Efficient use
• Higher standards
Ecocide and Role Reversal
• By‐products
– Global warming from greenhouse gases
– Smog and unhealthy urban environments
– Toxic waste
• Energy crises and effects on economy
• Severe climate changes
– Glacial retreat and ocean currents
– Hurricanes 11,12 17
Inconvenient Truths
http://eupnews.com/wp‐content/uploads/2011/02/Al‐Gore.jpg
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Summary
•
evolution and migration
• Socio‐political‐economic shifts with changing
climate (Rome, Feudalism, Industrialism)
• Significant human impact on climate
• Efforts to restore previous equilibrium
• Leaving the Holocene epoch?
19
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Modern Society 2009, 1025, 313‐331.
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Holocene and Pleistocene pluvial periods in Yemen, southern Arabia. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2011, 30, 783‐787.
(4) Cunniff, J.; Charles, M.; Jones, G.; Osborne, C. P. Was low atmospheric CO2 a limiting factor in the origin
agriculture? Environ. Archaeol. 2010, 15, 113‐123.
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Wanner, H.; Luterbacher, J.; Esper, J. 2500 Years
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(9) Erb, K.; Gingrich, S.; Krausmann, F.; Haberl, H. Industrialization, Fossil Fuels, and the Transformation
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(10) Robson, B. No City, no Civilization. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. 1994, 19, 131‐141.
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responsibilities for climate debt. Clim. Policy 2008, 8, 569‐576.
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