The
collapse of the Maya civilization is likely a good mirror for what may
occur in the modern world when climatic changes lead to failures in the
highly specialized and delicate framework of modern civilization. Modern
research has found that the classic Maya civilization collapsed at the
end of a long period of wet weather, as it gave way to drought.
As the local climate changed, the civilization and its products
disintegrated, leading to widespread famine, endemic warfare, and the
collapse of cities.
And now new research that has just been finished is providing more
insight into the effects that climate change had on the Maya. The
research very accurately details a climate record spanning over 2,000
years in the area of modern-day Belize, revealing more about the
changing periods of wet and dry weather in which Maya cities developed
from 300 to 1000.
The research was done by using the climate data that is contained in
stalagmites and the large amounts of archaeological evidence left behind
by the Maya. Stalagmites are the mineral deposits that are left behind
by the slowly dripping water in caves.
“Unlike the current global warming trend, which is spurred by human
activities including the emission of atmosphere-heating greenhouse
gases, the change in the Central American climate during the collapse of
the Maya civilization was due to a massive, undulating, natural weather
pattern.”
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