00000cam a22000003a 4500 UP-1685594773861955085 Buklod 20140515161804.0 g||| | || || ta 140515s2007 xx d r |||| u| 9780684863535 (pbk.) 0684863537 (pbk.) (iLib)UPBAG-00013651290 QC 981.8 C5 L56 2007 Linden, Eugene The winds of change climate, weather, and the destruction of civilizations Eugene Linden. 1st Simon & Schuster trade pbk. ed. New York Simon & Schuster Paperbacks 2007. xii, 319 p. ill., map 24 cm. Includes index. A matter of emphasis -- The deep past : climate as creator -- Destroyer -- The first victim -- Weapons of mass destruction : disease, migration, conflict, and famine -- Empty promises of water : the collapse of the Mayans -- The Little Ice Age : five hundred years of climate chaos -- Climate comes into focus -- The gears of global climate -- Proxy wars I : ice -- Proxy wars II : mud -- The mystery of Tell Leilan -- Scorched Earth -- Is it Little Ice Age, or ages? -- El Niño : how it works -- El Niño meets empire -- A taste of things to come? -- The tides of public opinion -- Water moving through water -- Going forward -- Chronology : the accelerating pace of climate change and scientific discovery. Climate has been humanity's constant, if moody, companion. At times benefactor or tormentor, climate nurtured the first stirrings of civilization and then repeatedly visited ruin on empires and peoples. Environmental journalist Linden reveals a recurring pattern in which civilizations become prosperous and complacent during good weather, only to collapse when climate changes--either through its direct effects, such as floods or drought, or indirect consequences, such as disease, blight, and civil disorder. The science of climate change is still young, but the evidence mounts that climate loomed over the fate of societies from arctic Greenland to the Fertile Crescent and from the lost cities of the Mayans in Central America to the rain forests of Central Africa. The tragedy of New Orleans is but the latest instance in which a region prepared for weather disasters experienced in the past finds itself helpless when nature ups the ante--Publisher's description. Climatic changes. Climate and civilization. Weather. Weather Social aspects. UPBAG KTRC QC 981.8 C5 L56 2007 Book