Friday, January 14, 2011

It's Come to This: Climate Change Contributed to Rise and Fall of Roman Empire

Here all this time I thought it was Sarah Palin and the incendiary rhetoric of rightwing talk radio that brought them to their knees.
Some House Democrats blamed their defeat in November’s mid-term elections partly on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to force a vote on a climate change bill.

A new study suggests that climate change has claimed bigger political victims in the past. Much bigger.

The study published in the journal Science suggests climate change contributed to the rise and fall of the Roman empire.

“Climate change seems a factor in the rise and fall of the Roman empire, according to a study of ancient tree growth that urges greater awareness of the risks of global warming in the 21st century,” Reuters reports.

The study's lead author said climate shifts affected farming, and amplified other political, social and economic crises.
Reuters seems to downplay the role of barbarians, or as they're more commonly known, liberals.
"Distinct drying in the 3rd century paralleled a period of serious crisis in the western Roman empire marked by barbarian invasion, political turmoil and economic dislocation in several provinces of Gaul," it said.

Temperatures and rainfall only returned to levels of the Roman period in the early 800s, around the time when new kingdoms consolidated in Europe.

The Black Death bubonic plague of the mid-14th century, for instance, was during an unstable, wet period. "From other studies we know that a more humid environment is more supportive fo the dispersal of plague," Buentgen said.
Isn't Black Death a pejorative? Shouldn't it be renamed Death of Color?

6 comments:

steveegg said...

I blame those Roman SUVs.

Seriously, doesn't this prove that climate change happens independent of human intervention?

AlaskaHome1959 said...

Undoubtedly caused by all the cars on the roads they built.

William Teach said...

Funny how they don't mention that the Black Death occured during the....Little Ice Age!

Say, what caused that warm period when the Roman Empire died out? Did they have oil powered chariots?

Or, could it be a big coincidence? Oh, and the fact that empires die out regardless of weather? Look at all the warfare and such during the LIA.

They are really, really digging deep now.

William Teach said...

Oh, and doing the research Reuters refused to do, the Roman Empire fell during the Dark Ages Cool Period in 476. Some say 1453, which was also during a cool period, the Little Ice Age.

skeneogden said...

The Vandals, Visigoths, Huns and effite, corrupt politcal system couldn't have anything to do with it now, could they?  Wrap it all up in a tidy little package called climate change and poof all other theses go out the window.  It's nice to have a panacea for everything now.

Anonymous said...

1