Roman Rise and Fall 'Recorded in Trees'

Roman Rise and Fall

www.bbc.co.uk

An extensive study of tree growth rings says there could be a link between the rise and fall of past civilisations and sudden shifts in Europe's climate.

...They found that periods of warm, wet summers coincided with prosperity, while political turmoil occurred during times of climate instability.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.sciencemag.org
news.bbc.co.uk
news.bbc.co.uk
news.bbc.co.uk

The evidence is mounting - climate change and climate instability bring down empires better than any war.

"Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from 250-600 AD coincided with the demise of the western Roman empire and the turmoil of the migration period," the team reported.

"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."

International mega-corporations knew what was coming, and positioned to make their corporations - and their power - immortal. Too bad the rest of us didn't have access to those actuarial reports.




www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by soficrow


OOooo finally a Thread i can sink my teeth into!

Thanks OP im gonna go Read, Content in the Knowledge its something worth reading

reply to post by soficrow


In my darker moments I think the only hope for free organic humanity is a severe climate based crisis that causes the downfall of the current manifestation of the Money Empire and its total control ethos.

reply to post by soficrow


Certainly going to be an interesting piece as that is my favoured period in history..
Hope to comment more when I know more thanks

reply to post by soficrow


Maurice Cotterell speculated something similar.

www.mauricecotterell.com...
www.mauricecotterell.com...

Consider that any empire relies on a heirarchy of individuals, with rulers at the top and the common people at the bottom.

Any heirarchy relies on an uneven distribution of power.

Power relies on having monopoly of certain necessary resources.

Climate change, as with any shorter-term catastrophe, changes the priorities, and the relative importance of different resources. In current society, as in the great empires, the necessary resource is money. In a situation of rapid climate change, the legal systems which keep us dependent upon money would disintegrate, and control breaks down.

The most important resources become food, water, and a safe place to sleep. With money having no value beyond that arbitrarily assigned to it, ownership will become arbitrary and resources will belong to anyone who can get them. Eventually, control of these resources will be gained by those who have the greatest armoury, and then up goes the next empire - until the next disaster.


That post got away from me a bit, but the point was "Yes, any global event tips the playing board, and topples the empires". S+F

We only have the history of Rome's impressive Road Network, but to now very little evidence of their thriving automobile industry that designed cars to only last as long as the 5 or 6 year finance period, then break down and quickly rust out, with many destroyed in the Cash for Clunkers Program of the Emperor Obama Period from 408 to 412.

Through these trees we are now finding why their failure to create a carbons emissions tax, led to this period of climate change that not only disasterously led to the end of the Empire, but hiding the fact that Rome ever had cars and trucks at all!

Thankfully we won't make the same mistake because we can be lucky enough to pay tax one day soon on our carbon emmissions, real change you can rely on at last!

If there's any link at all, it'd probably be climate instability forcing mass migrations of peoples from poor locals to more hospitable climates. I thought that was common knowledge, though.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler




But. ...Those who don't learn history are condemned to repeat it.

Thing is, they didn't have telecommuting in the roman age... All sorts of economical differences between then and now which very well might make climate a lot less of an indicator at that order of magnitude.

climateprogress.org...
If we are not careful our civilization may meet the same fate.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Thing is, they didn't have telecommuting in the roman age... All sorts of economical differences between then and now which very well might make climate a lot less of an indicator at that order of magnitude.

Maybe not. But they DID have the Oracles.



Seriously though, economic differences do NOT provide food, water and appropriate shelter when such resources are simply unavailable...