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Rapid Desert Formation May Have Destroyed China's First Kingdom

27 points| diodorus | 11 years ago |livescience.com

3 comments

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[+] trhway|11 years ago|reply
correlating climate changes and the history of rising/falling civilizations is pretty fascinating, like Roman Empire - 2000 years ago Mediterranean being comfortable for grain growth with drying out half-thousand years later with parallel warming out of the middle of Europe making it much more comfortable for agriculture, the heating peak of 1000 years ago in Mediterranean and Caliphates taking the whole region over and pushing back the Caliphates by Europeans with cooling down into the Middle Ages, Viking Age is basically the result of peak warming climate the same like Caliphates, Mongol Empire when grassy steppes with water for horses, yet without massive forests, formed across the whole Eurasia...
[+] JoeAltmaier|11 years ago|reply
Weren't they a 'water empire'? Did they create the desert? Then it could be considered a failed policy that brought them down.
[+] kirian|11 years ago|reply
The article suggests there was a worldwide climate shift:

"The scientists noted that, at about the same time that Hunshandake dried out, a major climatic shift was occurring worldwide that caused extraordinary droughts on all of the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. "