I learned of the name Brian Fagan on the Daily Show last night, who's written a book called "The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations." It appears to be a very historical view of how past droughts have caused many civilizations in human history to war with one another and ultimately fail. It sounds as if it's a great read, and not littered with the usual inherent politicization that most GW books are. Check it out.
The clip which alerted me to the book:
Brian Fagan | The Daily Show | Comedy Central
The author's site:
Brian Fagan
Amazon:
Reviews from the Amazon link:
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Global warming is hardly new; in fact, the very long-term trend began about 12,000 years ago with the end of the Ice Age. Anthropologist Fagan (The Little Ice Age) focuses on the medieval warming period (ca. 800-1300), which helped Europe produce larger harvests; the surpluses helped fund the great cathedrals. But in many other parts of the world, says Fagan, changing water and air currents led to drought and malnutrition, for instance among the Native Americans of Northern California, whose key acorn harvests largely failed. Long-term drought contributed to the collapse of the Mayan civilization, and fluctuations in temperature contributed to, and inhibited, Mongol incursions into Europe. Fagan reveals how new research methods like ice borings, satellite observations and computer modeling have sharpened our understanding of meteorological trends in prehistorical times and preliterate cultures. Finally, he notes how times of intense, sustained global warming can have particularly dire consequences; for example, by 2025, an estimated 2.8 billion of us will live in areas with increasingly scarce water resources. Looking backward, Fagan presents a well-documented warning to those who choose to look forward. Illus., maps. (Mar.)
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Climate has been making history for a very long time, though historians have rarely paid much attention to it. But as it turns out, a few less inches of rain, a change in temperature of just a degree or two can make all the difference in how human events unfold. The Great Warming demonstrates that although human beings make history, they very definitely do not make it under circumstances of their own choosing.
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"Drought is the pink elephant in the room that nobody seems to bring up when it comes to the global warming debate."
