Field Notes From A Catastrophe, Man, Nature And Climate Change By Elizabeth Kolbert

The Great Warming is a book written by Brian Fagan that encompasses the environment and history pertaining to most of the human race between A.D. 800 and 1300. Not only does the book give a new dimension to world history by looking at climate history, but it also provides the reader with an ominous warning of the impact that climate change may have on the human race in the future. Fagan references many civilizations in the book that were affected by the rise in surface temperatures. He goes in depth with them individually to show just how worldwide this climate change was, how each civilization adapted or failed to adapt, and who the winners and losers were during this medieval warming period.

It is widely known climate change is occurring because of multiple factors including greenhouse gases, human activity, and some scientists say solar irradiance. What most people do not know or simply have not thought of is how far back in history was climate change a problem or if it was an issue for early civilizations. It is apparent that early civilizations weakened for several reasons, but one reason in particular is affecting the world today. One particular civilization that is popular for their agriculture are the Mayans. The Maya empire occupied land that is now Guatemala. They were the most dominant native people before the 16th century and were intelligent in the way they did agriculture. With new research available, it is plausible to say the Mayans, did in fact, change the climate due to their way of deforestation.

The beginning of this chapter starts out with an ancient story of the kingdom of Akkad. It was said that a baby was found floating in a river and eventually he became a servant to the king, and after that he eventually became king of Akkad. He joined all the cities together and conquered others as well. His reign was for 56 years, and he was followed by his two sons, who were then followed by his grandson, who claimed to be a god. In a sudden strike, the entire kingdom just collapsed. It was known as The Curse of Akkad. "For the first time since cities were built and founded, the great agricultural tracts produced no grain, the inundated tracts produced no fish, the irrigated orchards produced neither syrup nor wine, the gathered clouds did no rain, the masgurum did not grow."(pg 93) This happened during a three year period. I believe this is probably the first "documented" major climate change/disaster. Because of that, it is why I think she put this in her book. I don't believe it was global warming or anything like that that would have caused this. But then again, I don't think this has to be all just about global warming, major climate changes are a big part as well.

The drought was brought on by changing climate in the mid-west; the drought during the Dust

Climate change is the most significant, most revisited, most controversial, most discussed climate issue in modern history. Global warming serves as a glaring demerit on the lengthy list of accomplishments of mankind: a reminder that progress coupled with reckless abandon never has a good outcome. Though its presence in the national spotlight is a recent phenomenon, the early stages of global warming were detected centuries ago.

Perhaps the best example for drought as the most rational theory for the Mayan collapse are the series of arguments put forth by Matthew Markowitz in the ICE Case Study- The Mayans, Climate Change, and Conflict. Although Markowitz acknowledges that warfare most likely was an accompanying factor with severe drought, it definitely was not the primary or underlying factor. For example, Markowitz explains that there always existed some form of warfare between Mayan states throughout their history and to some Mayan historians uncontrolled warfare was most likely one of the primary causes for the Mayan collapse (Markowitz, 2003).

That made it a lot harder for the farmers to grow things. The wind blew all the remaining topsoil away. There were four droughts. Each drought came one after the other.

The Maya society underwent a drastic climate change, and were given little understanding on how to live around it. Climate can do a lot to a population within hours of a day, as weather is what survival surrounds. The Classic Maya was well adapted to the heavy rainfall they received, in fact, much of their agriculture and culture surrounded. So it would seem ironic that a heavy drought would be the root cause of their disappearance, and yet this was the case. Peter deMenocal analyzed a wide range of data from all over the world, looking for a link which connected human communities with natural disasters especially droughts. He found that despite there being other possible situation to the collapse of the Classic Maya society, it wasn’t possible for them to be the sole reason and thus, reasoning that the enduring climatic situation which was presented to the society during the time was truly

Jared Diamond describes it as “man-made drought” (Diamond 268) because the Mayans caused it themselves. The Mayans were not very smart to think of the consequences deforestation would have, therefore, it contributed to the civilization

Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009,

Earth is an immeasurably complex planet, and the processes that make it so are equally as intricate. It is this same intricacy, however, that makes the Earth so vulnerable to even the slightest variation in overall temperature or change within the gases that which compose the atmosphere. What We Know About Climate Change by Kerry Emanuel aims to address this issue of Earth’s vulnerability head-on as it suggests the plausible causes for the undeniable planetary warming observed in the last century all the while proposing pragmatic solutions to discontinue the unnatural processes credited with the abnormal warming.

Thesis Statement: Climate change is natural; however, advances of human society such as deforestation, industrialization, and the burning of fossil fuels, have increased the rate at which the climate is changing.

Climate change otherwise known as global warming has been an ongoing issue for decades. Beginning in the 19th century, climate change has increasingly affected Earth and its atmosphere. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are warming the Earth’s atmosphere, causing rising sea-levels, melting snow and ice, extreme fires and droughts, and intense rainfall and floods. Climate change has and will continue to affect food production, availability of water, and can add to many health risks in humans and animals. In fact, in an article by Justin Gillis titled, “Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries” he focuses on a paper written by a former NASA climate scientist, James E. Hansen, explaining the effects of climate change on Earth today. Although many believe Hansen’s theories in the paper are quite far-fetched, the author mentions, “Despite any reservations they might have about the new paper, virtually all climate scientists agree with Dr. Hansen’s group that society is not moving fast enough to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, posing grave risks” (Gillis). Gillis validates the fact that climate change has been rapidly expanding throughout Earth and society has not been able to reduce it fast enough. Many negative risks are being posed and will continue to mount if the issue of climate change is not taken seriously. Although climate change negatively affects nearly all aspects of Earth, it poses a big

One of the most all time debated and controversial topics to date in science is global warming. Over the last few decades climate change have lead scientist to develop a theories that human beings are the major contributors to the global warming crisis. Many theories suggest that different types of issues contribute to the warming of the planet but the mitigation strategies to slow this process down vary as well.

Scientists have discovered 'climate forcing’s ' influence variations in climate systems and based on the depth and period of such forcing’s the adjustments to climate may be in a shorter or longer earth cycle. Natural forcing’s like variations in earth 's orbit, solar variation, volcanic eruptions and motion of tectonic plates have influence on the Earth 's climate