Collapse of civilisations
Previous studies have linked climate variations to the collapse of societies around the world. According to a study published in Nature (Vol 375, No 6530, June 1, 1995), drought caused the demise of the Maya civilisation in Mexico. The researchers argued that internal factors like population growth and environmental degradation, worked with climate change and led to the Maya collapse.
Another study published in Science (Vol. 291, No. 5508, February 23, 2001) explored other prehistoric and ancient civilisations and found that natural climatic variations led to collapse of civilisations. In Mesopotamia, a canal-supported agricultural society collapsed about 3,400 years ago. The researchers reported that paleoclimatic record suggests a severe 200-year drought may have caused the civilisations to collapse. With wetter conditions, civilisations thrived in the Mediterranean, Egypt, and west Asia.However, catastrophic drought hurt agricultural production and caused collapse of civilisations.
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