Megadrought and Collapse

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199329214
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Megadrought and Collapse by : Harvey Weiss

Download or read book Megadrought and Collapse written by Harvey Weiss and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Megadrought and Collapse is the first book to treat in one volume the current paleoclimatic and archaeological evidence of megadrought events coincident with major prehistoric and historical examples of societal collapse. Previous works have offered multi-causal explanations for collapse, from overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, and warfare to poor leadership and failure to adapt to environmental changes. In earlier synthetic studies of major instances of collapse, the full force of climate change has often not been considered. This volume includes nine case studies that span the globe and stretch over fourteen thousand years, from the paleolithic hunter-gatherer collapse of the 12th millennium BC to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer capital at Angkor. Together, the studies constitute a primary sourcebook in which principal investigators in archaeology and paleoclimatology present their original research. Each case study juxtaposes the latest paleoclimatic evidence of megadrought (so-called for its severity and its decades - to centuries-long duration) with available archaeological records of synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from all five archival paleoclimate proxy sources: speleothems (cave stalagmites), tree rings, and lake, marine, and glacial cores. The archaeological records in each case are the most recently retrieved. With Megadrought and Collapse, Harvey Weiss and his team of expert contributors have assembled an authoritative investigation that is certain to engage environmental history readers across disciplines in the sciences and social sciences.

Megadrought in the Carolinas

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Publisher : University Alabama Press
ISBN 13 : 0817320466
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Megadrought in the Carolinas by : John S. Cable

Download or read book Megadrought in the Carolinas written by John S. Cable and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers the Native American abandonment of the South Carolina coast A prevailing enigma in American archaeology is why vast swaths of land in the Southeast and Southwest were abandoned between AD 1200 and 1500. The most well-known abandonments occurred in the Four Corners and Mimbres areas of the Southwest and the central Mississippi valley in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and in southern Arizona and the Ohio Valley during the fifteenth century. In Megadrought in the Carolinas: The Archaeology of Mississippian Collapse, Abandonment, and Coalescence, John S. Cable demonstrates through the application of innovative ceramic analysis that yet another fifteenth-century abandonment event took place across an area of some 34.5 million acres centered on the South Carolina coast. Most would agree that these sweeping changes were at least in part the consequence of prolonged droughts associated with a period of global warming known as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. Cable strengthens this inference by showing that these events correspond exactly with the timing of two different geographic patterns of megadrought as defined by modern climate models. Cable extends his study by testing the proposition that the former residents of the coastal zone migrated to surrounding interior regions where the effects of drought were less severe. Abundant support for this expectation is found in the archaeology of these regions, including evidence of accelerated population growth, crowding, and increased regional hostilities. Another important implication of immigration is the eventual coalescence of ethnic and/or culturally different social groups and the ultimate transformation of societies into new cultural syntheses. Evidence for this process is not yet well documented in the Southeast, but Cable draws on his familiarity with the drought-related Puebloan intrusions into the Hohokam Core Area of southern Arizona during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to suggest strategies for examining coalescence in the Southeast. The narrative concludes by addressing the broad implications of late prehistoric societal collapse for today’s human-propelled global warming era that portends similar but much more long-lasting consequences.

Megadrought and Collapse

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199329192
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Megadrought and Collapse by : Harvey Weiss

Download or read book Megadrought and Collapse written by Harvey Weiss and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Megadrought and Collapse revises the global archaeological and historical record with nine case studies that describe and analyze decades to centuries long megadroughts, from the Pleistocene to the 15th century AD, and the societal collapses they caused. Each study is a definitive review of societal responses to natural climate change.

Understanding Collapse

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110715149X
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding Collapse by : Guy D. Middleton

Download or read book Understanding Collapse written by Guy D. Middleton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607322803
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context by : Gyles Iannone

Download or read book The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context written by Gyles Iannone and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context, contributors reject the popularized link between societal collapse and drought in Maya civilization, arguing that a series of periodic “collapses,” including the infamous Terminal Classic collapse (AD 750–1050), were not caused solely by climate change–related droughts but by a combination of other social, political, and environmental factors. New and senior scholars of archaeology and environmental science explore the timing and intensity of droughts and provide a nuanced understanding of socio-ecological dynamics, with specific reference to what makes communities resilient or vulnerable when faced with environmental change.Contributors recognize the existence of four droughts that correlate with periods of demographic and political decline and identify a variety of concurrent political and social issues. They argue that these primary underlying factors were exacerbated by drought conditions and ultimately led to societal transitions that were by no means uniform across various sites and subregions. They also deconstruct the concept of “collapse” itself—although the line of Maya kings ended with the Terminal Classic collapse, the Maya people and their civilization survived. The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context offers new insights into the complicated series of events that impacted the decline of Maya civilization. This significant contribution to our increasingly comprehensive understanding of ancient Maya culture will be of interest to students and scholars of archaeology, anthropology, geography, and environmental studies.

Climate Chaos

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Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 1541750888
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (417 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate Chaos by : Brian Fagan

Download or read book Climate Chaos written by Brian Fagan and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thirty-thousand-year history of the relationship between climate and civilization that teaches powerful lessons about how humankind can survive. Human-made climate change may have begun in the last two hundred years, but our species has witnessed many eras of climate instability. The results have not always been pretty. From Ancient Egypt to Rome to the Maya, some of history’s mightiest civilizations have been felled by pestilence and glacial melt and drought. The challenges are no less great today. We face hurricanes and megafires and food shortages and more. But we have one powerful advantage as we face our current crisis: the past. Our knowledge of ancient climates has advanced tremendously in the last decade, to the point where we can now reconstruct seasonal weather going back thousands of years and see just how people and nature interacted. The lesson is clear: the societies that survive are those that plan ahead. Climate Chaos is a book about saving ourselves. Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani show in remarkable detail what it was like to battle our climate over centuries and offer us a path to a safer and healthier future.

Collapse

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141976969
Total Pages : 608 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Collapse by : Jared Diamond

Download or read book Collapse written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times

Climate Change and Ancient Societies in Europe and the Near East

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030811034
Total Pages : 669 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate Change and Ancient Societies in Europe and the Near East by : Paul Erdkamp

Download or read book Climate Change and Ancient Societies in Europe and the Near East written by Paul Erdkamp and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-05 with total page 669 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change over the past thousands of years is undeniable, but debate has arisen about its impact on past human societies. This book explores the link between climate and society in ancient worlds, focusing on the ancient economies of western Eurasia and northern Africa from the fourth millennium BCE up to the end of the first millennium CE. This book contributes to the multi-disciplinary debate between scholars working on climate and society from various backgrounds. The chronological boundaries of the book are set by the emergence of complex societies in the Neolithic on the one end and the rise of early-modern states in global political and economic exchange on the other. In order to stimulate comparison across the boundaries of modern periodization, this book ends with demography and climate change in early-modern and modern Italy, a society whose empirical data allows the kind of statistical analysis that is impossible for ancient societies. The book highlights the role of human agency, and the complex interactions between the natural environment and the socio-cultural, political, demographic, and economic infrastructure of any given society. It is intended for a wide audience of scholars and students in ancient economic history, specifically Rome and Late Antiquity.

Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197506372
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith by : Philip Jenkins

Download or read book Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith written by Philip Jenkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world's leading scholars of religious trends shows how climate change has driven dramatic religious upheavals. Long before the current era of man-made climate change, the world has suffered repeated, severe climate-driven shocks. These shocks have resulted in famine, disease, violence, social upheaval, and mass migration. But these shocks were also religious events. Dramatic shifts in climate have often been understood in religious terms by the people who experienced them. They were described in the language of apocalypse, millennium, and Judgment. Often, too, the eras in which these shocks occurred have been marked by far-reaching changes in the nature of religion and spirituality. Those changes have varied widely--from growing religious fervor and commitment; to the stirring of mystical and apocalyptic expectations; to waves of religious scapegoating and persecution; or the spawning of new religious movements and revivals. In many cases, such responses have had lasting impacts, fundamentally reshaping particular religious traditions. In Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith historian Philip Jenkins draws out the complex relationship between religion and climate change. He asserts that the religious movements and ideas that emerge from climate shocks often last for many decades, and even become a familiar part of the religious landscape, even though their origins in particular moments of crisis may be increasingly consigned to remote memory. By stirring conflicts and provoking persecutions that defined themselves in religious terms, changes in climate have redrawn the world's religious maps, and created the global concentrations of believers as we know them today. This bold new argument will change the way we think about the history of religion, regardless of tradition. And it will demonstrate how our growing climate crisis will likely have a comparable religious impact across the Global South.

Ecosystem Collapse and Climate Change

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 303071330X
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (37 download)

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Book Synopsis Ecosystem Collapse and Climate Change by : Josep G. Canadell

Download or read book Ecosystem Collapse and Climate Change written by Josep G. Canadell and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-06-19 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human-driven greenhouse emissions are increasing the velocity of climate change and the frequency and intensity of climate extremes far above historical levels. These changes, along with other human-perturbations, are setting the conditions for more rapid and abrupt ecosystem dynamics and collapse. This book presents new evidence on the rapid emergence of ecosystem collapse in response to the progression of anthropogenic climate change dynamics that are expected to intensify as the climate continues to warm. Discussing implications for biodiversity conservation, the chapters provide examples of such dynamics globally covering polar and boreal ecosystems, temperate and semi-arid ecosystems, as well as tropical and temperate coastal ecosystems. Given its scope, the volume appeals to scientists in the fields of general ecology, terrestrial and coastal ecology, climate change impacts, and biodiversity conservation.

Climate and Social Stress

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Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309278562
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate and Social Stress by : National Research Council

Download or read book Climate and Social Stress written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-02-14 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change can reasonably be expected to increase the frequency and intensity of a variety of potentially disruptive environmental events-slowly at first, but then more quickly. It is prudent to expect to be surprised by the way in which these events may cascade, or have far-reaching effects. During the coming decade, certain climate-related events will produce consequences that exceed the capacity of the affected societies or global systems to manage; these may have global security implications. Although focused on events outside the United States, Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis recommends a range of research and policy actions to create a whole-of-government approach to increasing understanding of complex and contingent connections between climate and security, and to inform choices about adapting to and reducing vulnerability to climate change.

The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory

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Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 0199559953
Total Pages : 615 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory by : Graeme Barker

Download or read book The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory written by Graeme Barker and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2009 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing one of the most debated revolutions in the history of our species, the change from hunting and gathering to farming, this title takes a global view, and integrates an array of information from archaeology and many other disciplines, including anthropology, botany, climatology, genetics, linguistics, and zoology.

Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118704436
Total Pages : 574 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (187 download)

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Book Synopsis Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations by : Liviu Giosan

Download or read book Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations written by Liviu Giosan and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 198. Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations brings together a collection of studies on the history of complex interrelationships between humans and their environment by integrating Earth science with archeology and anthropology. At a time when climate change, overpopulation, and scarcity of resources are increasingly affecting our ways of life, the lessons of the past provide multiple reference frames that are valuable for informing our future decisions and action plans. Volume highlights include discussions of multiple connotations of the Anthropocene, landscapes as a link between climate and humans, synoptic approaches to explore large-scale cultural patterns, regional studies for contextualizing cultural complexity, and environmental determinism and social theory. Straddling the fields of Earth sciences, anthropology, and archaeology and presenting research from across several continents, Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations will appeal to a wide readership among scientists, scholars, and the public at large.

Analyzing Collapse

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Publisher : American University in Cairo Press
ISBN 13 : 1617979600
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (179 download)

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Book Synopsis Analyzing Collapse by : Miroslav Bárta

Download or read book Analyzing Collapse written by Miroslav Bárta and published by American University in Cairo Press. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the long-term trends in the development of what was the first complex civilization in history, the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2650–2200 BC), the period that saw the construction of eternal monuments such as Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex in Saqqara, the pyramids of the great Fourth Dynasty kings in Giza, and spectacular tombs of high officials throughout Egypt. The present study aims to show that the historical trajectory of the period was marked by specific processes that characterize most of the world’s civilizations: the role of the ruling elite, the growth of bureaucracy, the proliferation of interest groups, and adaptation to climate change, to name but a few—and the way that these processes held the germ of ultimate collapse. The case is made that the rise and fall of the Old Kingdom state is of relevance to the study of the anatomy of development of any complex civilization.

Collapse and Transformation

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Publisher : Oxbow Books
ISBN 13 : 1789254264
Total Pages : 737 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (892 download)

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Book Synopsis Collapse and Transformation by : Guy D. Middleton

Download or read book Collapse and Transformation written by Guy D. Middleton and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The years c. 1250 to 1150 BC in Greece and the Aegean are often characterised as a time of crisis and collapse. A critical period in the long history of the region and its people and culture, they witnessed the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms, with their palaces and Linear B records, and, through the Postpalatial period, the transition into the Early Iron Age. But, on closer examination, it has become increasingly clear that the period as a whole, across the region, defies simple characterisation – there was success and splendour, resilience and continuity, and novelty and innovation, actively driven by the people of these lands through this transformative century. The story of the Aegean at this time has frequently been incorporated into narratives focused on the wider eastern Mediterranean, and most infamously the ‘Sea Peoples’ of the Egyptian texts. In twenty-five chapters written by 25 specialists, Collapse and Transformation instead offers a tight focus on the Aegean itself, providing an up-to date picture of the archaeology ‘before’ and ‘after’ ‘the collapse’ of c. 1200 BC. It will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean regions, as well as providing data and a range of interpretations to those studying collapse and resilience more widely and engaging in comparative studies. Introductory chapters discuss notions of collapse, and provide overviews of the Minoan and Mycenaean collapses. These are followed by twelve chapters, which review the evidence from the major regions of the Aegean, including the Argolid, Messenia, and Boeotia, Crete, and the Aegean islands. Six chapters then address key themes: the economy, funerary practices, the Mycenaean pottery of the mainland and the wider Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region, religion, and the extent to which later Greek myth can be drawn upon as evidence or taken to reflect any historical reality. The final four chapters provide a wider context for the Aegean story, surveying the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus and the Levant, and the themes of subsistence and warfare.

Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events

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Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309177758
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events by : Institute of Medicine

Download or read book Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2008-09-23 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before the "germ theory" of disease was described, late in the nineteenth century, humans knew that climatic conditions influence the appearance and spread of epidemic diseases. Ancient notions about the effects of weather and climate on disease remain embedded in our collective consciousness-through expressions such as "cold" for rhinovirus infections; "malaria," derived from the Latin for "bad air;" and the common complaint of feeling "under the weather." Today, evidence is mounting that earth's climate is changing at a faster rate than previously appreciated, leading researchers to view the longstanding relationships between climate and disease with new urgency and from a global perspective. On December 4 and 5, 2007, the Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop in Washington, DC to consider the possible infectious disease impacts of global climate change and extreme weather events on human, animal, and plant health, as well as their expected implications for global and national security.

The Great Warming

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1596917806
Total Pages : 219 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (969 download)

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Book Synopsis The Great Warming by : Brian Fagan

Download or read book The Great Warming written by Brian Fagan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this New York Times bestseller, Brian Fagan shows how climate transformed-and sometimes destroyed--human societies during the earth's last global warming phase. From the 10th to 15th centuries the earth experienced a rise in surface temperature that changed climate worldwide-a preview of today's global warming. In some areas, including much of Western Europe, longer summers brought bountiful crops and population growth that led to cultural flowering. In others, drought shook long-established societies, such as the Maya and the Indians of the American Southwest, whose monumental buildings were left deserted as elaborate social structures collapsed. Brian Fagan examines how subtle changes in the environment had far-reaching effects on human life, in a narrative that sweeps from the Arctic ice cap to the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. The lessons of history suggest we may be yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives today.