How does climate change change civilization?

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization by Brian Fagan is an excellent read. You will find yourself sprinting through this book and asking for more when you are done. Luckily, Brian Fagan also wrote The Little Ice Age . The focus of this article is The Long Summer and climate change. In Brian’s book he paints a picture of how earlier civilizations thrived and dived according to climate stability and climate change. In an era of seemingly rapid climate change this book is very timely.

                Brian Fagan in The Long Summer takes us from the last ice age, through Mesopotamia and Rome and on into the Medieval Era. Throughout the ages, Fagan demonstrates how stable abundant climates led to the rise of great civilizations and then illustrates how those same civilizations were brought low due to climate change. Sometimes this climate change and civilizational decay was gradual, other times it was rapid and overwhelming.

                The most important message of The Long Summer is that in the past large floods, droughts, cold periods or heat waves would kill thousands of people but today those same disasters would devastate millions. These natural disasters today result in a massive backlash after the immediate effect of the disaster. These dangerous after effects were experienced in Haiti after the earthquake, in New Orleans still today, and in many places across the world such as Indonesia. When disasters occur today they affect millions and lead to large societal, cultural, and political changes. During our era of rapid climate change Brian Fagan’s The Long Summer is a must read.