快猫短视频

The Long Summer: How climate changed civilization by Brian Fagan, Granta, 拢20, ISBN 1862076448 Reviewed by Douglas Palmer

NUMEROUS 17th and 18th-century paintings of frost fairs on the Thames and frozen Dutch canals show how rapidly climate can change. And we all have personal experience of our very limited tolerance for temperature change of just a few degrees. The only surprise is how long it has taken us to realise the impact changing climate has had upon human social development.

The Long Summer is the latest fascinating investigation from anthropologist-archaeologist Brian Fagan. He examines exactly how climate changed civilisation over the past 20,000 years. As he says, 鈥渃limate has helped shape civilisation but not by being benign.鈥� Civilisations have had to adapt or die.

Eminently readable as usual, Fagan presents a wealth of information from the earth sciences, archaeology and history, much of which, such as the clues to past climates locked in ice cores, has emerged only recently. Combining all this with the advent of sophisticated mathematical modelling now allows us to see the rise and fall of civilisations within an increasingly rigorous climate framework.

Fagan鈥檚 book is also a timely reminder of our vulnerability. Fagan shows just how quickly agriculture can collapse through over irrigation or failure to cope with drought. He points out that time and again 鈥渇ew of those in command believe the gathering clouds have any relation to their fate鈥�.