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Is climate related to human history?

Weather is one of the eternal topics of mankind. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors began to look forward to timely rain, snow and sunny weather, and this has not changed until now. Taking the impact on agriculture as the most typical and direct example, climate has had an extremely significant impact on human society during the long process of historical changes. Whether it promotes development and progress or causes stagnation and turmoil, it has always been in everyone's mind. around.

There is Dayu in the east who controlled the floods, and there is Noah's Ark in the west. The great flood may be a unique memory that exists in the myths of many civilizations. Aristotle believed that the Great Flood was not a simple myth, but a cyclical atmospheric phenomenon. Just like the four seasons, extreme cold weather and large-scale and long-lasting precipitation also occurred periodically. Even if we put aside the mythical era that is too long ago and only observe written history, we can still find the multi-faceted impact of climate on human society.

Climate change: an important factor affecting the rise and fall of ancient civilizations

Although ancient Babylon, one of the four ancient civilizations, was born here, today, probably no one would think that Mesopota The Mia Plain is an area suitable for human survival and development: the climate here is dry, the soil is exposed, and it is covered with sand dunes. Like other desert areas, precipitation is scarce and the temperature difference is large. However, if we go back in time to the early days of the ancient Babylonian civilization, the climate in the Mesopotamia was not like this.

Geology and environmental change researchers believe that the Mesopotamia Basin once had a humid rather than arid climate. During the warmest period of the postglacial period, much of the area around the Mediterranean was arid. However, due to the expansion of the southwest monsoon and the nourishment of monsoon rains, there is a humid climate in northern Iraq at 34° to 35° north latitude. Geologists have confirmed the existence of a humid climate in the Mesopotamia basin through a series of means such as radiocarbon dating, amino acid isomerization analysis, and pollen analysis. Therefore, Mesopotamia was once a "paradise" in history. The geographical environment and climate here were very good at that time. During that critical period of humid climate, ancient Babylon became a splendid civilization. Without the abundant flow of the two river basins, how could the ancients obtain enough water to irrigate farmland? Without the rainfall brought by the monsoon, it would be difficult for a splendid civilization to be born in the arid and barren land.

People may be more familiar with the situation in ancient Egypt. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus called ancient Egypt "the gift of the Nile." The regular flooding of the Nile provided fertile farmland for the ancient Egyptians to cultivate. But why does the Nile flood regularly? Climatic factors play an important role in this.

The Blue Nile, an important tributary of the Nile River, originates from Lake Tana on the Ethiopian plateau. Its upper reaches are in tropical mountain rainy areas with abundant water resources. The river's precipitation has strong and distinct seasonality, and the river flow varies greatly within the year. The amount of water is limited in spring, and the water begins to rise in June and reaches its peak in early September. The water level drops from November to December, and then enters the dry season. Due to this characteristic of the Blue Nile, the lower reaches of the Nile flood regularly every year, which gave birth to the Egyptian civilization.

The ancient civilizations in the Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt both declined and even perished around 2000 BC. Many studies show that the climate became arid over large areas during this period. Sediments in the Gulf of Oman, the estuary of the two river basins, indicate that there was a dry period lasting about 300 years during this period. The study of tree rings on coffins near the pyramid also supports this conclusion. Ancient civilizations were unable to withstand the hazards of prolonged drought, which therefore largely contributed to their decline.

Ancient India, located between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, was blessed with a humid climate. In the past, people usually believed that the Western invasion destroyed the ancient Indian civilization, but in fact, the ancient Indian civilization had already begun to decline before the Aryan invasion. Meteorologists have found evidence of intense drought in India from 4,000 to 3,500 years ago. Therefore, climate change has become a possible reason for the decline of ancient Indian civilization.

Climate events: the natural “driver” that changes the course of history

In 2007, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a report by researchers such as the University of Hong Kong on the relationship between climate change and war. research report. This study used data to demonstrate the inference that the frequency of wars and changes in population are related to the cycle of average temperature changes on a century-scale.

This study believes that climate cooling will lead to food shortages and increase pressure on human living environments. The most common form of coping with stress is migration, or exile. Because mature agricultural societies will establish political boundaries in populated areas, this restricts large-scale migration. Therefore, when large-scale migration occurs due to food shortages or even famine caused by climate change, the result is often war.

In our country, the most typical war caused by climate change is the conflict between agricultural society and nomadic society. As we all know, in the continuous history of civilization in our country, the nomadic tribes in the north have always been in conflict with the farming society in the Central Plains. The Xiongnu in the Han Dynasty, the Turks in the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan, Jurchen and even Mongolia in the Song Dynasty, and the Manchuria in the Ming Dynasty... Nomads have always threatened the security and stability of farming society.

In a humid and warm climate, both nomadic and agricultural areas are in a relatively affluent environment. And once the climate gets colder, it tends to be dry.

Because the areas where nomadic people live are often cold areas with high altitudes and high latitudes, the environment is harsh and resources are scarce. These marginal areas will always bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change. Their nomadic range shifted to warmer areas at lower latitudes and lower altitudes. Thus causing intrusion into farming society.

According to the four warm periods and four cold periods in our country’s history divided by Zhu Kezhen, we can find the corresponding relationships. In addition to the first cold period, the second cold period from the early AD to 600 AD, that is, the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties eras, was relatively turbulent; the third cold period was from 1000 to 1200 AD, corresponding to the two Song dynasties. , at that time, the Song Dynasty and the Liao, Xixia, Jin, Yuan and other ethnic minority regimes successively stood side by side; during the fourth cold period from 1300 to 1900 AD, the Qing Dynasty from the north directly eliminated the Ming Dynasty and replaced it. In contrast, peace and prosperity are more common in periods of warm climate: the Wenjing rule, the Zhenguan rule, and the Kaiyuan period all occurred in warm periods.

There are countless climate events on smaller time scales, many of which have affected the course of history to a greater or lesser extent. Typhoons prevented Mongolia from invading Japan, Atlantic storms destroyed the Spanish Armada, and Napoleon and Hitler failed in their wars due to Russia's cold climate. However, this is not the focus that people should pay attention to. We should recognize that climate has played an important role in human history and will continue to do so in the future. Therefore, what impact global climate warming will bring and how to deal with it are currently important issues faced by all mankind.

(Source: China Meteorological News, Page 3, March 22, 2015 Editor: Tang Miao)