Climate Change

People moved into the river valleys of Africa and West Asia and Central Asia about 3000 BC, because the world was getting warmer and they had to move where there was enough water. All the people crowded together in those valleys created the world's first cities and governments.

But the world continued to get warmer. By about 2000 BC, it was so warm that even in the river valleys, there really wasn't enough water to keep the civilization going. In some places, like the Indus valley in Pakistan, the cities were gradually abandoned. Probably a lot of people starved to death, and the rest moved up into the hills where it was cooler and rained more. In Egypt, this warming may have caused the First Intermediate Period.

To find out more about ancient climate change, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Floods, Famines, and Emperors, by Brian Fagan (2000). Fagan thinks El Nino is responsible for a lot of political change all over the world. Other people are more skeptical, but he's probably right about some of it at least.

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization, by Brian Fagan (2003). More of the same kind of thing, blaming a lot of problems on the long global warming trend that has been going on since about 8000 BC. Be careful - it's poorly edited and there are some errors.

West Asia
India
China
Africa (with Egypt)
The Mediterranean
Northern Europe
Islamic Empire
The Middle Ages

Teachers' guides on the environment
Environment-related gifts

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