Long before modern industry and shiny SUV's, there was global warming.
In a new book, anthropologist Brian Fagan tells us that 1,000 years ago Mother Nature turned up the heat. There were big winners and big losers. Europe flourished, wide swaths of Asia and North America were devastated by drought.
This time it looks like our hand is on the thermostat. As the mercury continues to rise, what can history teach us about the consequences of global warming?
Listen to On Point discussion about going back to the climate change future.
Is there something for humans today to learn and remember from the warming world of a thousand years ago?
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Comments: 3
Fact 1: human action has definitely changed massive areas for the worse, as is the case with the expanding desertification of sub-Saharan Africa. It's not even that new a phenomenon. See, for example, the history of Rome and Egypt.
Fact 2: human action (burning fossil fuels) is a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Human action is the sole source of halogenated hydrocarbons, e.g., Freon, with its damaging effects on the ozone layer.
True, the Earth will survive whatever we do. Humanity may not.