Did the Maya Civilization Fall Because of Climate Change?

Lindberg veered inland and flew over a stretch of southern Mexico and Central America that was covered with dense vegetation, a region so remote and inaccessible that outsiders reportedly had never ventured there. As Lindberg soared over the trees, something ahead caught his attention, what an Associated Press account later described as two emerald eyes staring up at him out of the tangle of the jungle brush. As Lindberg swooped

in low to investigate, he was astonished. It was the ruins of a vine enshrouded city about eight miles across that's about thirteen kilometers, dotted with numerous small periods, and what turned out to be a stone temple two hundred and fifty feet tall that seventy five meters with twin reflecting pools, the green reflections from which had looked to him like a pair of eyes, But there were no

signs of humanity anywhere around the site. E Lindberg was filled with awe as he gazed upon the ruined grandeur of a once mighty Maya city whose builders apparently had abandoned it to be swallowed by the jungle. But why, That's a question that archaeologists, scientists, and historians have been

puzzling about ever since. During its heyday, what's called the Classic Maya Civilization, which blasted from about two hundred and fifty to nine hundred CE, the Maya peoples had one of the most advanced and complex civilizations on the planet. They built more than forty network worked, yet independently run cities across what's now Central America and Mexico, filled with temples and palaces and elaborate sculpture and carvings whose magnificence

still impresses. They developed advanced irrigation techniques for growing crops, and performed astronomical observations that enabled them to predict solar eclipses. They had a family of around thirty languages that included written hieroglyphs, which some Maya used to write books on paper made from fig trees. They devised an elaborate calendar

whose cycles ran for centuries into the future. And yet by the time Spanish conquerors arrived in Central America in the early fifteen hundreds, many of the Great Maya cities were empty, and the builder's descendants had integrated into other communities or cultures, or returned to smaller communities with smaller scale architecture. We should note that the entire civilization did

not collapse. No civilization at that large of a scale as a monolith, and the fact that there are Maya peoples living today attests that the entire population didn't just vanish, but several large urban centers were all abandoned between around

eight hundred to nine hundred CE. Over the years, scholars have developed numerous theories about why the mighty Classic Maya civilization went through this fall, but recent discoveries point to a cluster of causes that sounds eerily familiar, one centered on climate change. Oh, we are lucky that at least some of the Classic Maya's written records survived, and that they were also written about by post classic Maya peoples. That some of those records survived, which has enabled scholars

to partially reconstruct their history. But in some ways, those tenalizing clues have only made the mystery of the decline more frustrating. Over the years, researchers have developed various theories about what caused the decline of those Maya cities, though it was most likely a combination of these and other factors and not anyone alone. Here are a few of the most prominent theories, in no particular order. First, we have over farming. Some scholars have argued that my society

grew too rapidly for its own good. As the population of some cities increased, it put vocal farmers under more and more pressure to grow food, and gradually they ran out of fresh forest land. Clear that would have forced them to plant crops in their fields without an adequate fallow cycle, that is the time it takes soil to rebuild its nutrients supply. Deforestation like that can also disrupt the water supply by rerooting rainwater and groundwater. A Second,

we have interior and exterior political turmoil. Each Maya city state had its own rulers who often had their populations convinced that they had ties with deities and were powerful enough to control the weather. Hard to say whether or not those leaders believed in those magical powers themselves. Their efforts to conquer neighboring cities and peoples may have backfired, as long periods of war sapped resources been led to retaliation. There's evidence that a number of Maya cities eventually were

besieged and fell to invaders. Third, we have disease, though in this case the theory is about an agricultural epidemic, not a human one. A maze was a staple crop across the Maya civilization, and the Maze mosaic virus may have destroyed much of their food supply. A note that all three of these factors are connected to the fourth theory, the aforementioned climate change. A destruction of the food and water supply by overfarming, deforestation, warfare, and disease would have

been exacerbated by the happenstance of natural climate change. Add to this the fact that political leaders were supposed to be able to control the weather. Anthropologists say this chain of unfortunate events would have caused the people to deeply lose trust in their leaders, which would in turn further disrupt agriculture and infrastructure and trade, everything that ties the

city together. A while our modern civilization is driving global warming by polluting the atmosphere, the Earth's climate is affected by other factors, such as changes in solar activity and volcanoes. The plight of the Maya seems to be largely the result of such natural cycles. Scientists who have studied mineral deposits left by dripping water in caves have been able to construct a two thousand year long history of weather

patterns in Central America. In an article published in Science back in twenty twelve, the researchers revealed that for the first several hundred years of classic Maya civilization, they benefited from unusually wet weather that made it easier to grow crops and enabled the population to expand. That also made the Maya kings look pretty good because they could claim credit for conducting the rituals that kept the rains coming. But around sixteen sixty CE, the weather changed and rain

became more infrequent in some regions of the area. The Maya also may have accelerated that climate change by cutting down the forest around them, probably for fuel and create wood plaster for use in their ornate buildings and to clear land. From studying pollen found in ancient layers of Central American lake sediment, scientists learned that around eight hundred CE, tree pollen disappeared almost completely and was replaced by pollen from weeds. That suggests that the region's forests had all

but disappeared. Without trees and their root systems to keep soil in place, erosion would have worsened, carrying away fertile top soil, which would have crippled local agriculture. Additionally, trees function as natural air conditioners, a drawing water through their leaves in cooling the surrounding air. When the water evaporates, you can experience the same effect if you live in a city. In a park with trees, it's going to seem cooler than it does out on a city block

with just buildings an asphalt all around you. Computer simulations indicate that some regions temperature could have increased by as much as six degrees fahrenheit or around three and a half degrees celsius. That change would have been enough to

alter the weather even more. Researchers who have analyzed changes in river sediment have found that in the century after deforestation in some regions, a rainfall declined there, with intense multi year droughts occurring around the years eight ten, eight sixty and nine ten CE. Because the people in these cities probably depended upon rain captured in reservoirs for drinking water, they would have faced not only hunger, but thirst as well.

It's not hard to imagine how a panicked population would have fled its once great city their way of life collapsed into a sort of pre Columbian mad max. Though again the note that Classic Maya civilization was not a monolith. Different communities faced slightly different pressures and came up with different solutions. As some cities fell, others prospered. That said, there are some lessons from the so called collapse of the Classic Maya that we ignore at our own peril.

Scientists warn that we are repeating the same pattern of deforestation that may have exacerbated climate change in Central America a millennium ago, except on a far more massive scale. Trees are about fifty percent carbon, and in the US alone they presently absorb or sinc a little less than a million metric tons of atmosphere warming carbon dioxide, which offsets between ten and twenty percent of what Americans spew

into the atmosphere by burning coal and gasoline. But when we cut down trees or burn them, they released their stored carbon into the atmosphere, and they aren't around to absorb any more of it. Over the past several centuries, the US has cut down about ninety percent of the forests that once covered the continent, and what still remains is in peril and in currently developing nations, once lush forests have been disappearing at an alarming rate thanks to logging, agriculture,

and the need for human living space. In recent years, there has been some international progress in slowing the rate of deforestation, but we still face the risk that it will push us even faster into climate chaos. It's a problem that we must work harder to solve, both as a broad civilization than within our own differing communities. Personal choices feel small, but they do add up, and you can make your voice heard in your local government on

bigger issues. If you're here, you probably agree that learning is the fun part, So learn what you can do by checking out your government agencies in the US that's going to be at EPA dot gov, and what local activists are up to. Today's episode is based on the article did the Maya civilization end because of climate change? On how stuffworks dot com written by Patrick J. Kiger. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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