The winds of change : climate, weather, and the destruction of civilizations / Eugene Linden.
Linden, Eugene.
2006
QC981.8.C5 L567 2006 (Mapit)
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Title The winds of change : climate, weather, and the destruction of civilizations / Eugene Linden.
Author Linden, Eugene.
ISBN 0684863529
Imprint New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
Language English
Description x, 302 p. : ill., map ; 25 cm.
Other Standard Identifiers 9780684863528
Call Number QC981.8.C5 L567 2006
Dewey Decimal Classification 551.609/01
Summary Climate has been humanity's constant, if moody, companion. At times benefactor or tormentor, climate nurtured the first stirrings of civilization and then repeatedly visited ruin on empires and peoples. Environmental journalist Linden reveals a recurring pattern in which civilizations become prosperous and complacent during good weather, only to collapse when climate changes--either through its direct effects, such as floods or drought, or indirect consequences, such as disease, blight, and civil disorder. The science of climate change is still young, but the evidence mounts that climate loomed over the fate of societies from arctic Greenland to the Fertile Crescent and from the lost cities of the Mayans in Central America to the rain forests of Central Africa. The tragedy of New Orleans is but the latest instance in which a region prepared for weather disasters experienced in the past finds itself helpless when nature ups the ante.--From publisher description.
Note Includes index.
Linked Resources Publisher description
Sample text
Table of contents
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
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A matter of emphasis
The deep past : climate as creator
Destroyer
The first victim
Weapons of mass destruction : disease, migration, conflict, and famine
Empty promises of water : the collapse of the Mayans
The Little Ice Age : five hundred years of climate chaos
Climate comes into focus
The gears of global climate
Proxy wars I : ice
Proxy wars II : mud
The mystery of Tell Leilan
Scorched Earth
Is it Little Ice Age, or ages?
El Niño : how it works
El Niño meets empire
A taste of things to come?
The tides of public opinion
Water moving through water
Going forward
Chronology : the accelerating pace of climate change and scientific discovery.

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