• Home
  • Motorcycles
  • Electric Motorcycles
  • 3 wheelers
  • FUV Electric 3 wheeler
  • Shop
  • Listings

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from CycleNews about two, three wheelers and Electric vehicles.

What's Hot

2025 Thunder Valley National Motocross Fantasy Picks: Fast Facts

2025 BMW R 1300 GS Adventure to Quail MotoFest: A Travel Story

Silicon Valley Is Starting to Pick Sides in Musk and Trump’s Breakup

Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Home
  • Motorcycles
  • Electric Motorcycles
  • 3 wheelers
  • FUV Electric 3 wheeler
  • Shop
  • Listings
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
Cycle News
Submit Your Ad
Cycle News
You are at:Home » Why Have Climate Catastrophes Toppled Some Civilizations but Not Others?
Electric Motorcycles

Why Have Climate Catastrophes Toppled Some Civilizations but Not Others?

cycleBy cycleOctober 21, 202304 Mins Read
Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email


This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The Roman Empire fell more than 1,500 years ago, but its grip on the popular imagination is still strong, as evidenced by a recent trend on TikTok. Women started filming the men in their lives to document their answers to a simple question: How often do you think about the Roman Empire? 

“I guess, technically, like every day,” one boyfriend said, as his girlfriend wheezed out an astonished “What?” He wasn’t the only one, as an avalanche of Twitter posts, Instagram Reels, and news articles made clear. While driving on a highway, some men couldn’t help but think about the extensive network of roads the Romans built, some of which are still in use today. They pondered the system of aqueducts, built with concrete that could harden underwater.

There are a lot of reasons why people are fascinated by the rise and fall of ancient empires, gender dynamics aside. Part of what’s driving that interest is the question: How could something so big and so advanced fail? And, more pressingly: Could something similar happen to us? Between rampaging wildfires, a rise in political violence, and the public’s trust in government at record lows, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched that America could go up in smoke.

Theories of breakdown driven by climate change have proliferated in recent years, encouraged by the likes of Jared Diamond’s 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. The Roman Empire, for example, unraveled during a spasm of volcanic explosions, which led to a period of cooling that precipitated the first pandemic of bubonic plague. The decline of the ancient Maya in Central America has been linked with a major drought. Angkor Wat’s downfall, in what is now Cambodia, has been pinned on a period of wild swings between drought and monsoon floods. So if minor forms of climate change spelled the collapse of these great societies, how are we supposed to survive the much more radical shifts of today? 

Focusing too closely on catastrophe can result in a skewed view of the past—it overlooks societies that navigated an environmental disaster and made it through intact. A review of the literature in 2021 found that 77 percent of studies analyzing the interplay between climate change and societies emphasized catastrophe, while only 10 percent focused on resilience. Historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists have recently tried to fill in that gap. The latest entry is a study that analyzes 150 crises from different time periods and regions, going off a comprehensive data set that covers more than 5,000 years of human history, back to the Neolithic period. Environmental forces often play a critical role in the fall of societies, the study found, but they can’t do it alone.

Researchers with the Complexity Science Hub, an organization based in Vienna, Austria, that uses mathematical models to understand the dynamics of complex systems, found plenty of examples of societies that made it through famines, cold snaps, and other forms of environmental stress. Several Mesoamerican cities, including the Zapotec settlements of Mitla and Yagul in modern-day Oaxaca, “not only survived but thrived within the same drought conditions” that contributed to the fall of the Maya civilization in the 8th century. And the Maya, before that point, had weathered five earlier droughts and continued to grow.

The new research, published in a peer-reviewed biological sciences journal from The Royal Society last month, suggests that resilience is an ability that societies can gain and lose over time. Researchers found that a stable society can withstand even a dramatic climate shock, whereas a small shock can lead to chaos in a vulnerable one.



Source link

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Previous ArticleTOP 5 LONGEST RANGE ELECTRIC SCOOTERS IN INDIA 2023 | Price, Range, Review | ELECTRIC SCOOTER 2023
Next Article BRUTAL VEHICLES THAT ARE ON ANOTHER LEVEL
cycle
  • Website

Related Posts

Silicon Valley Is Starting to Pick Sides in Musk and Trump’s Breakup

June 5, 2025

Elon Musk’s Feud With President Trump Wipes $152 Billion Off Tesla’s Market Cap

June 5, 2025

Elon Musk Is Posting Through It

June 5, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Demo
Top Posts

2025 Thunder Valley National Motocross Fantasy Picks: Fast Facts

June 6, 2025

The urban electric commuter FUELL Fllow designed by Erik Buell is now opening orders | thepack.news | THE PACK

July 29, 2023

2024 Yamaha Ténéré 700 First Look [6 Fast Facts For ADV Riding]

July 29, 2023
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • TikTok
  • WhatsApp
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
Latest Reviews

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest tech news from FooBar about tech, design and biz.

Demo
Most Popular

2025 Thunder Valley National Motocross Fantasy Picks: Fast Facts

June 6, 2025

The urban electric commuter FUELL Fllow designed by Erik Buell is now opening orders | thepack.news | THE PACK

July 29, 2023

2024 Yamaha Ténéré 700 First Look [6 Fast Facts For ADV Riding]

July 29, 2023
Our Picks

Should they keep building the Volvo XC90 ?

₹35,000 में महिंद्रा इलेक्ट्रिक ऑटो खरीद लो 😳| India🇮🇳 का सबसे बढ़िया Electric Auto 👌| Mahindra Treo

The US Solar Power Industry Is Trying to Rebrand as MAGA-Friendly

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from CycleNews about two, three wheelers and Electric vehicles.

© 2025 cyclenews.blog
  • Home
  • About us
  • Get In Touch
  • Shop
  • Listings
  • My Account
  • Submit Your Ad
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Stock Ticker

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.