Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
pa rt t wo
A Climate History of the American West
Humanity has been at the mercy of climate change for its entire
existence. Ini nitely ingenious, we have lived through at least
eight, perhaps nine, glacial episodes in the past 730,000 years.
Our ancestors adapted to the universal but irregular global
warming since the end of the Ice Age with dazzling opportun-
ism. h ey developed strategies for surviving harsh drought
cycles, decades of heavy rainfall or unaccustomed cold; adopted
agriculture and stock-raising, which revolutionized human life;
founded the world's i rst preindustrial civilizations in Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and the Americas. h e price of sudden climate
change, in famine, disease, and suf ering, was ot en high.
Brian Fagan,
h
e Long Summer
