How Climate Made History | Extra Long Episode

freezing cold oppressive heat devastating drought extreme climate change may have contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals and allowed modern Homo sapiens to dominate the earth [Music] all life on Earth is subject to the power of climate civilizations evolve or vanish forever favorable climatic conditions support the rise of great empires and promote trade prosperity and artistic achievement adverse climatic events often lead to war and other human catastrophes [Music] almost 14 billion years ago immense forces created the universe the Big Bang spawned vast galaxies each with millions and millions of stars moons and planets [Music] among these is one small blue planet our earth water warmth and the Earth's protective atmosphere create something that may be unique in the universe a climate that makes life possible as the oceans formed and the continents drifted apart the earth developed seasons temperature differences between land and water produced winds and land bridges shaped the ocean currents but climate has always been prone to sudden change often with dramatic consequences for life on Earth 65 million years ago the dinosaurs were the unchallenged masters of the prehistoric world until their sudden demise a media strike triggered volcanic eruptions and earthquakes the ensuing climatic chain reaction wiped out the giant reptiles [Music] after the age of the dinosaurs the earth cooled climate change also affected our ancestors early hominids had to survive periods of both extreme heat and extreme cold most were unable to adapt and died out then over thousands of years the polar ice caps expanded as did the Earth's alpine glaciers around 60,000 BC average temperatures were about five degrees colder than they are today this had a huge impact Arctic sea ice extended all the way to Europe so much water was frozen that sea levels became up to 100 meters lower the icy temperatures also affected the land the ground was not only frozen solid but also extremely dry where the ice ended there were stretches of tundra and tiger if you look at Western Europe as a place to live you find that there are two challenges one you find that you have very cold conditions particularly in winter but during the summer because the ice is so far south you have this wonderful sort of like high-energy environment so it doesn't stay stable for a very long period and you have this sort of oscillating extremes going through the Ice Age which then stress any creatures that are living there at that time but one hominid genus was resistant to these stresses the Neanderthals were suited to these extreme conditions they not only survived the climatic variations but developed an impressive range of skills [Music] Neanderthals were adept at hunting large animals and knew how to light fires they were the first hominids to develop successful strategies for coping with climatic variation transy Hosanna for name is more god muscle team got bombed that doesn't doesn't get under limb spitting on them and limber you no no no you won't be hotter and it is Pilar Keiser's in the Neanderthals caves fires kept temperatures constant they made warm clothes from animal skins the key thing for surviving cold climates is to avoid frostbite so the key things that you want to actually protect in cold climates of course your fingers your toes your nose and of course genitalia if you happen to be a male the animals were short and stocky their body surface area was quite small relative to their body mass but they had lots of muscle which generates heat they had the perfect Anatomy for surviving in an ice age [Music] the Neanderthals main problem was their diet they needed to consume large quantities of meat to sustain their muscle mass so they preferred to hunt large animals in summer when the ice receded for a few weeks they hunted mammoths and other big game hunting was physically demanding and dangerous but Neanderthals needed animal protein and vitamins to survive the long winters they often tracked their prey over long distances you look at a Neanderthal they are tough they are cold adapted and you would expect them to survive and thrive in the ice ages and they did thrive while the climate was stable but then quite suddenly it changed the climate has always been subject to large but predictable fluctuations most of these are caused by the Sun the center of our solar system as the Earth revolves the sun's rays strike its surface at some times its orbit is more circular at others more elliptical one orbital cycle takes 100,000 years the angle of the Earth's axis also moves in a 40,000 year cycle these changes caused regular climatic variations on earth as the intensity of solar radiation increases and decreases other influences on the Earth's climate such as fluctuations in sea currents are irregular the Gulfstream for example works like a giant heat pump moving more water towards Europe wasn't a he had as victus akima elementor's whoever hopped hum the UH non-elemental keema system Vedas online stylin and maximize the scheme oh my god when a ghost home untrained would a Swafford they said not Atlantic for in the wrong phone cards expose ad card it's like a few mere climatologists are investigating how changes in the Gulf Stream affected the Neanderthals the answers lie hidden in Germany's Eiffel mountains deep in the lakes that have formed in ma the craters of extinct volcanoes these scientists are doing pioneering work they use sophisticated technology to reconstruct the Earth's prehistoric climate from its own natural records using a special drill they're taking core samples from the sediment of Mar Lakes in the Eiffel mass region for thousands of years pollen has settled in these oxygen-poor waters and been perfectly preserved for scientists the lakes provide a unique climatic record the core samples are fragile they have to be frozen with liquid nitrogen so they don't disintegrate on their way to the surface [Music] every sample that's brought up intact opens a door to the past the pollen layers allow the scientists to draw conclusions about climatic conditions thousands of years ago the earth never forgets and the climate leaves a unique footprint now the research team from the University of Mainz can start reading the climate Chronicle the stairs under listen can since in the marvelous the seconds art of boot investor here harm on the singita enseñar see ahead in blood vino I'm taggable can be fixed for shift an elysian when she received the schemas given us the Constitution the older the period they want to investigate the deeper the scientists need to drill one millimeter of the sample equals one year a meter long sample takes them back in time 1,000 years at a depth of 40 meters the researchers reach the era of the Neanderthals the Eifel Mars are an ideal location for this research because the Neanderthals lived in this region the Neander Valley where the first Neanderthal skeleton was found is just 150 kilometers away the core samples reveal what conditions were like for the Neanderthals when the gulfstream became erratic [Music] the dark layers of earth indicate periods with mild climates and extensive forests cover lighter layers indicate periods when barren steps covered the area and summers were 4 degrees colder than today about 60,000 years ago the climate changed suddenly with dramatic consequences for the Neanderthals as Resendiz Candela in the womb and in female Guillermo had Devan thousand indica in forensics and guts of hope up until scene yarn linked us here there were 10 cold and hot phases in quick succession the landscape and the vegetation changed rapidly humans and nature were under constant stress this climate chaos pushed the Neanderthals to their limits and threatened their very existence Danny are not allowed to do that side banana vite vite tattooin Ghalib on ventini on the thing that is a Half Men slipper when scientist animal advisor give one to you our Ganesh madam Honda has insertion and team of accidents in yon extreme AHA's for whom find a gazelle shaft the Medina vyakt Vizier first the Neanderthals pray disappeared many animals were unable to find enough food and starved others migrated away suddenly the Neanderthals were hunters with no prey at the same time a competitor moved into their territory Homo sapiens evolved in the warm climate of East Africa and slowly migrated all the way to Europe [Music] the newcomers seemed completely unsuited to this harsh and changeable climate [Music] Homo sapiens was tall and slender with long arms and legs this build made them extremely susceptible to cold but they overcame this disadvantage thanks to a new skill it's been argued that Homo sapiens had a very different shoulder so they could actually throw Spears whereas if we look at the shoulders of Neanderthals they're so big and chunky that actually that ability to throw probably wasn't there and actually they were much more ye to be thrusting Spears throwing spears allowed Homo sapiens to kill much faster animals from a distance the revolutionary invention made hunting for meat much easier [Music] the Neanderthals who'd been the Masters of Europe lost their fight for survival they weren't adaptable enough to save their species the last of them died on the Rock of Gibraltar about 24,000 years ago the clear winner in this time of climate change was Homo sapiens we still share about 99% of our genetic material with these ancient humans [Music] after migrating to Europe from Africa Homo sapiens spread to India and Asia then fire land bridges to Australia and America during this mass migration they settled in some of the most remote corners of the earth the key to that was the adaptability the ability to understand the environment how it's changing and to work with large social groups to be able to actually deal with that changing landscape and for me this is the point where humans first started to adapt to the climate and use the climate for their own good during a time of unprecedented climate chaos humans developed a unique ability surviving in changing climates this allowed them to withstand the last millennia of the Ice Age a time of extreme cold [Music] the ice age gradually came to an end around 17,000 BC due to changes in the Earth's orbit as the earth moved closer to the Sun life changed dramatically the sunlight grew stronger particularly in summer the icy planet was about to experience a global spring it took several thousand years for the Sun to warm the entire globe as the Earth's climate became much milder a new era began and has continued until the present day [Music] warmer temperatures led to changes in the environment first the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic began to melt the oceans also began to warm and the Gulf Stream began to flow again as temperatures rose more and more moisture evaporated into the atmosphere this led to regular rainfall which triggered a burst of plant growth there was increased biodiversity mixed forests spread across Europe and North America and subtropical forests flourished closer to the equator new animal species started to populate the fertile plains as continum of blue in their biosphere the grass tetany name to deteriorate names who dementia Hadassah annasophia shelter in her room felt I am under the highest heights of perfume for holding office plans leisure Nam's Mittal betrayal egg lighted sousou-sama Inspiro dc9 along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and in the eastern Mediterranean abundant natural resources created ideal living conditions at the ancient site of Gobekli Tepe our 60 stone Steel's engraved with the images of animals including foxes wild boar and water birds nomadic peoples may have worshipped these figures because wild animals supplied them with meat and skins Oh Sammy Hagar's air traffic on India - welt see field soccer and fire marshal from quickly taper boo-boo Kishan I shall Takashi take tours and vicar Todd sent home from whom he had seen and no Sam like a liqueur Baba's over severe and in how somebody on the side and fahisha Mary she could be also of great benefit to humans and animals were the wild grains growing in the warm sunshine of the Fertile Crescent I'm corn spelt and Emma grew all across the Middle East they're among the oldest grain varieties on earth easily stored these grains could be eaten all year round and so provided humans with a reliable food source as the seasons became more regular humans began to cultivate these wild cereals they observed the cycles of nature and by experimenting soon learned the best times to sow crops agriculture revolutionized prehistoric societies many abandoned the nomadic lives and became farmers and cattle breeders [Music] for the first time humans began to settle down and build villages they no longer needed to travel to find food [Music] prior to agriculture people were hunter-gatherers and moving around and everybody from the very eldest to the very youngest were all concentrating on collecting and hunting for food because that was essential as soon as you have the Agricultural Revolution and agriculture starts suddenly not everyone is involved in food production and allowing people to have the freedom to actually do other things allow society to build once they'd settled in villages people began to specialize and develop their skills they invented techniques that allowed them to make new valuable objects for their communities you have specialists who are then farmers we have specialists who are then looking after cattle and goats and other domesticated animals and then other people can then develop specializations so for example if you're settled in one place then you will want people who are specialized in building so you can actually then have a houses built or you can have buildings built and so you then start to free up people from the manual labor of just producing food pottery metalwork and weaving changed people's lives so did more humble inventions like bread and beer both of the centuries villages grew into towns one of the oldest is Jericho on the banks of the River Jordan other cities in the area were chattel who yuck era do and earn this cradle of civilization benefited from a long period of favorable climatic conditions is orders to begin from Borden bow on feet sock and clannish ponies and global Aquinas poem dementia is purchased a frontiersman convening Egypt finish the house Python this anatomic Madonna mentioned the advocate I'm from Staten only and Vic Damone's our industry gesellschaft Dustin Fergus teegan's cause an embrasure in desi global dementia for Endicott on Wabash no additional over Chicago and Lancashire from horns and Dickens under smile nuts for here around the same time a disaster was looming in North America part of a continental ice sheets melted and created a vast Lake it continued to grow until it covered an area of four hundred and forty thousand square kilometers far bigger than any Lake existing today the intense sunlight caused the lake to grow as more and more melt water flowed into it from the mountains at first ice barriers held back this huge volume of water but around 6200 BC they too began to melt and disaster was inevitable the barriers around Lake Agassiz collapsed a huge amount of icy water was released it flooded large parts of North America and eventually drained into the Atlantic the immense inflow of cold water upset the currents in the Atlantic it disrupted the Gulfstream which ceased to have a warming effect temperatures dropped all across Europe in the Fertile Crescent where agriculture had so recently allowed humans to make enormous progress the weather suddenly became cold and dry this led to devastating droughts and crops failed the new agrarian societies lost their livelihoods talking thousands and fatah lefeber Alicia gesellschaft für alles gute hi Dinesh James Woodham home for Dodds nationalists and garnets my Mahon Boyer Alicia gesellschaft profanity or Hanukkah visa ratings Isha hide the sawdust is a deserter from in wonder dem regen inter here often the first ever climate refugees came from the eastern Mediterranean many thousands left in search of a new Eden [Music] some ventured as far as Europe where temperatures were still relatively mild and fertile soil promised ideal conditions for settlement [Music] others stayed in the Middle East but moved further south everywhere they went these migrants introduced agriculture they preferred to settle along rivers or on the coast anywhere they had a reliable supply of fresh water and food but even in moderate climate zones the settlers were not safe [Music] the dangers caused by the North American meltwater were far from over sea levels rose 120 metres all over the world humans found their very existence threatened gradually the sea reclaimed vast tracts of fertile land and rising sea levels flooded settlements in river deltas and along coasts the Bible tells of these events in one of its best-known stories God told Noah to gather all the world's animals on his ark two of each kind and take them to safety the rest of humanity was to be punished in a devastating deluge Noah did God's bidding if you look into almost all human societies there are stories about the Great Flood and the reason for this is because key period of time between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago after the last ice age sea levels continue to rise and that flood all those societies that are affected by that sea level rise has really empennage tap on our psyche and has embedded itself in our stories about the end of the world the Bible is not the only book that tells of a great flood and an arc the mountainous waves and the deluge that destroyed everything in its path are all so vividly described in the epic of gilgamesh from ancient Mesopotamia and the Koran [Music] tribal peoples in South America also tell of a vast flood that covered the entire earth it is said that people only survived by fleeing to the mountaintops Indigenous Australians also refer to a great flood the dramatic rise in sea levels thousands of years ago has become part of our collective memory all around the world where people were sea level rose and rose and Rose until about 5000 years when we know that there are lots of areas that are completely flooded now that had society so you can see cities underneath the sea close to mortar and in Japan we know that off the coast of the United Kingdom in the North Sea is doggerland and when you actually surveyed Auckland it has the imprint of villages or near lithic tribes that used to live there that were flooded out the rising sea levels changed the map of the world in North America Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes came into being in Northern Europe the Baltic Sea was formed Japan Indonesia and Australia became Islands the great glacial melt did not always bring devastation one place that benefited was the Sahara [Music] today it's a hot arid and inhospitable region but the Sahara may once have been very different [Music] at an ancient site on the gilt kabeer Plateau in Egypt archeologists have uncovered surprising scenes from prehistoric times they've found stenciled handprints which were probably made by nomads or traders an adjacent cave has rock paintings of humans standing alone and in groups all this art was produced during the time of the Great Flood while much of the world suffered the Sahara appears to have been teeming with life many people lived here and animal life was abundant there were antelopes and lions and even giraffes what is now the world's largest sandy desert was once a fertile savanna it was home to herds of animals that roamed rich pastures fed by a vast network of rivers and lakes [Music] the change in this region's climate was influenced by another factor monsoon winds the northern hemisphere was receiving more heat from the Sun because of a change in the tilt of the Earth's axis [Music] landmasses store more heat than oceans creating temperature differences that produce monsoon winds which carry cool moist air inland these winds brought rain and abundant life to what is now desert if we look at the Sahara and we find that there is a huge period of time between about 12,000 years ago and five-and-a-half thousand years ago where the Sahara was Green and by that we mean that people were able to live there and so we find archaeological finds all the way through the Sahara showing the people thrive there there was clearly enough food agriculture was actually developing there and then slowly for about 7,000 years onwards the Sahara started to expand but this flowering of the Sahara and the abundance of water wildlife and food plants was fated not to last the fertile savanna land became a sandy desert harsh barren and largely uninhabited the subtropical monsoon winds lasted only a relatively short time until the Earth's axis shifted again as the sun's heat decreased the monsoons lost their power [Music] when plants die from drought less moisture is retained in the soil this accelerates the degradation of the land and deserts form surprisingly quickly and mostly it's the man owns x1r I monitor owners cuspidors lack inventiveness near vindicate metonymy inevitably hated open America cannons at Mia then that's happened lunch after lunch after performed we know when the Sahara became a desert thanks to this ancient burial site in niger on what was once the shores of lake Oboro for many generations the dead were buried here along with objects such as bone fish hooks and jewelry made from hippopotamus tusks [Music] but the burials seem to have ended quite abruptly in around 3,500 BC when the lake dried up the inhabitants abandoned the burial site and all trace of them disappears [Music] when the rain stopped they had to leave drought had completely transformed the landscape and this didn't just happen in the Sahara all over the world deserts began to form the Taklamakan in central asia australia's red centre penomet and the Kalahari deserts in southern Africa [Music] this was the last major shift toward the Earth's current climatic patterns that small change in the tilt of the globe caused the rains to stop in many subtropical regions [Music] once again climatic change forced thousands to migrate there was an exodus from the Sahara towards a fertile region in northern Africa while inland rivers had dried up the Nile in Lower Egypt was still a reliable source of water on its banks the migrants found fertile soils the Nile Valley is Egypt's green heart a verdant floodplain over 1,100 kilometers in length the Great River provides ample water to irrigate the valley which is surrounded by desert [Music] every summer heavy rains in the ethiopian highlands cause the river to break its banks in September and October the floodwaters recede the soil dries out and the fields can be tilled while they follow a regular yearly cycle the Nile floods can be extreme the early settlers had to adapt to these conditions the climate refugees became skillful farmers and hydraulic engineers the ancient Egyptians knew how to use every drop of the precious monsoon rains for their fields water flowed through a system of canals to direct the water to where it was needed they used locks and counterweighted buckets this sophisticated irrigation system helped create an economic boom the Nile made the region prosperous and fed increasing numbers of people Egypt's first cities sprang up along the banks of the Nile in defrost island business Fela mentioned in distinct sewer system attrition or long distance so Anushka Hagen is a sueance form simple settlements soon evolved into Egypt's first kingdom but the social and political system continued to revolve around safeguarding and managing the water supply [Music] this was done with the help of an ingenious invention the Nayla meter a stepped structure used to measure the level of the Nile flood waters the measurements were used to predict the effect of the flood each year the Egyptian calendar was also based on this annual flooding Park it was the season of inundation Parrott was the season of emergence and Shamu was the harvest season an ad client the occupational is a lady done in the kneeling untouched woman notes parts Omaha incisions but also Larsen's on and fun in super fatty urine tossed by the grunt lager and house difference here to attract 500 shaft went deserves on whole gamut in clima button zu fan of the cold lager essentially in the education Hokuto ah this most famous of ancient civilizations was the product of favorable climatic conditions in the nile valley the pharaohs were able to build and maintain the Egyptian Empire over almost three thousand years because the Nile provided all the necessary resources [Music] the fundamental resource you need to build an empire is food and water if you actually want artisans to build temples you want soldiers to go off and fight wars for you you have to be able to feed them and to water them if you can ensure and protect your food supply and your water supply for all of your people then you can start to build a large civilization with key resources secure the Pharaohs oversaw a long period of stability these powerful leaders were able to bring prosperity to their people - who put one entity in da hood as creamer hopped sue last order would a streamer dimension that's who typed whoo-hoo - ensue in vehicle it wasn't just a gypped that flourished other civilizations arose between the latitudes of 20 and 40 degrees north in Mesopotamia and Persia in northern India in Karakoram in China in Mexico and Peru and in the Mediterranean the Mycenaeans Minoans durations and Etruscans all these cultures had similar climates the kingdom of Kutner in modern-day Syria also blossomed during this period and established itself as one of the ancient world's most important economic centres it controlled the major trade routes connecting North Africa and the Middle East [Music] Bronze Age cultures had something else in common again it was related to the climate Sun worship Egyptians venerated the Sun God in southern England the stone circles of Stonehenge marked the summer and winter solstices and may have been associated with Sun worship this structure in the German town of ghosting is a solar observatory [Music] this sky disk found in nearby Libra is thought to be an astronomical instrument [Music] many Bronze Age societies revered the Sun as the giver of life 2,000 years later all this changed as the entire Mediterranean region entered a period that is sometimes called the dark ages of antiquity from about 1200 BC civilizations collapsed one after the other sources refer to seafaring people who launched raids around the Aegean little is known about them only that they always attacked from the sea [Music] they ransacked towns and cities leaving a trail of destruction wherever they went from Greece to Gaza no one was safe their raids marked the end of the Mediterranean civilizations of the Bronze Age [Music] researchers are still investigating the reasons behind the collapse of these kingdoms they suspect that climate change may have played a role but one of the reasons that these are called the dark ages is that there are so few written records dating from this time paleoclimatologist Dominic flight Minh hopes to shed light on this period using geological data from the coaching in cave in southern Turkey people have been visiting the cave for thousands of years because it provides not only shelter but also water large pools were built in ancient times to collect the rainwater that seeps into the cave deeper inside the cave this water has created a fascinating climate record which Flatman is researching the cave contains huge rock formations including stalagmites up to 20 meters tall most are millions of years old a walk in this cavern is also a journey through the area's climatic history it is a top stoner the sister faustina terrain when the idæan format salami - larks and in desmos teen leader stocks may avoid any - comm sending destruction huge budget on VMs analyst on tune well mood Anson Dubois and an illegitimate Odin taiga high minister on this signal to an orphan the problem is that he needs to find just the right sample from among all these stalagmites many of these ancient formations stopped growing at the end of the Bronze Age when water stopped entering the cave [Music] stalactites and stalagmites need a constant supply of water if they are to grow they're formed by rainwater seeping through soil and dripping off rocks the water leaves behind deposits of calcium carbonate which accumulate over time these fragile structures allow researchers to analyze rainfall patterns over millennia the samples from coaching in cave indicate that the climate changed abruptly during the Bronze Age the sund'ys macaques transients cylinder the toilet / device our code cities I wanna stop Angeles wanna stop blogging on the only fair and the middle - Dalek meeting on fader deposit sites an inch patient ended upon society and relations invented soon armored install blog this increase in dust layers shows that during the Late Bronze Age the climate became drier this is confirmed by the rate at which the stalagmites crew which slowed noticeably during the period in contrast to preceding centuries almost no new layers of limestone were added this suggests a decrease in rainfall around the Mediterranean from about 1200 BC the whole region was in the grip of drought LD parameter D Ruby Mesner harms are no one's talking ones coat an actor's perfect a recipe for disaster a recipe for disaster indeed as recurring droughts affected the entire Mediterranean region soon soils were depleted fields could no longer be tilled the mysterious seafarers who raided kingdom after Kingdom were actually climate refugees huge numbers of migrants over an Egypt word had spread that it was rich in resources and that the pharaohs granaries were well-stocked ramasees the third eventually won a resounding victory over the Raiders but their invasion of Egypt was the beginning of a prolonged gradual decline so the old kingdom ruled for hundreds and hundreds of years and then a cold snap produced droughts across the Middle East keep'em with drought is it means that your food supply stops if you don't have enough food you can't feed people those people then either migrate to other places where there is food or they actually start trying to produce food themselves so what you have is every layer of government starts to collapse because you can't feed people that are trying to run the country and you see that the old kingdom collapses Egypt shows us the power of climate so kingdoms fail because of a climate anomaly [Music] rainfall dropped substantially and temperatures were the lowest fed beans since the end of the Ice Age it wasn't until about 300 BC that the Earth's alignment again made the climate more favorable with milder temperatures and regular rainfall in the mountains glaciers receded the balance of nature was restored in the Mediterranean and beyond the changes brought an end to the climate crisis and much-needed relief to ecosystems all over the world including Africa [Music] abundant rainfall replenished groundwater levels soils became fertile again and crops thrived in northern Africa em'ly the most sought-after export of the time grew as far as the eye could see Vivi's investors in in sama Munna any guitar given wouldn't hurt him you need early August the Maloof Eiffel Tower Moringa finest obras - mmm - this is Katara vexed this abundance attracted the attention of an emerging power which obtained access to Africa's granaries by force [Music] it's subjugated its archenemy Carthage in the Punic Wars and secured its food supply for centuries to come [Music] the rising imperial power was Rome during its golden age more than 800,000 people lived in its bustling capital on the river Tiber [Music] famous for both its efficient administration and its extravagant lifestyle the Roman Empire outs on all that had come before it [Music] so by Piazza hook Sean is a momentum did against Donna to afford against a Natur star whereas Klimas oh is that is all sterner to her house Liam condors he tears of Finland Canada France in Finland can decent clematis Athenians over on his men tried Scotia Stefan begin and clima register when out there begins from co2 and renewal of angst admitting prima fucknuts at home Rome kept its people content with bread and circuses abroad it expanded its empire the climate favored Rome [Music] [Applause] [Music] the earth just before the birth of Christ the stars were favorably aligned for life on our blue planet for thousands of years the earth had been orbiting close to the Sun and receiving abundant light and heat the sun's scorching rays were tempered by the Earth's atmosphere which cooled them to comfortable levels [Music] as well as the plentiful sunshine there was also regular rainfall in northern Egypt em'ly an ancient form of wheat grew in abundance much of this grain was also used by a European power to feed its empire Rome was the center of a vast empire it's remembered for decadent luxury grandiose architecture and the lavish spectacles that entertained its people this extravagance was possible because of favorable climatic conditions so if you look at climate and what is you could perceive as good climate what you really want is enough water throughout the year so you can have agriculture so you have enough drinking water but also what you need is stability so what you really want is the weather to be the same each year so you can plan the growth rings of ancient oaks tell today's researchers that around 100 BC the weather was very stable and that temperatures were rising gradually average temperatures were about two degrees centigrade warmer than in previous centuries for almost 300 years climatic conditions were ideal for strong stable growth the small rise in temperature had a huge impact on the northern hemisphere especially high in the mountains [Music] prior to this the Alps had stopped the Roman Empire expanding northwards but the higher temperatures caused glaciers to melt mountain passes were no longer covered in ice and snow allowing Roman troops easy passage is being philocan so far the 60 so amateur I cut in desert site in the not open and repeat house paint as a hakama onion white onion the commando feeder and Suzanne Whang meat and limousine the Romans took advantage of the mild climate their troops crossed the Alps effortlessly and in large numbers nothing stood in the way of their conquest of gimana once over the Alps their superior combat techniques made the Roman legions invincible region after region came under fire the Germanic tribes didn't stand a chance at the height of its power the Roman Empire extended from Britain to the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and had 50 million inhabitants but the Romans weren't the only ones taking advantage of the climate China was also experiencing a golden age along the Yangtze River rice grew in abundance the invention of agricultural irrigation systems improved people's living conditions as did the use of draft animals after numerous military campaigns Qin Shi Huangdi United all the warring States under his rule in 221 BC China became an empire the Chinese emperor liked his Roman counterpart pursued an expansionist policy that made him enemies the Qin Empire soon began work on the fortifications now known as the Great Wall of China the wall was built of rammed earth and stone and was meant to protect the Empire against hostile nomadic tribes in the north [Music] the Romans used wood to build the walls that marked their Imperial borders [Music] the Lemus go monica's which stretched for over 550 kilometers controlled the flow of Trade and defended the Empire against enemy raids all along the Lemus were watchtowers manned with Legionnaires but that was not enough to protect Rome from a long series of battles with Germanic tribes [Music] with its dense forests the Germani and terrain proved a challenge for the Romans and they weren't used to the heavy rainfall in these northern latitudes in nine ad three Roman legions entered the toyota borg forest it had been raining for days and the ground was muddy the dense undergrowth meant they couldn't march in combat formation they walked straight into an ambush the great thing about the actual Roman Empire was its standardization standardize the way people made roads how the army marched and how they fought the problem is that they were used to engage armies on sort of like a battlefield however when you're fighting in dense forests in mud with huge amounts of rainfall suddenly all of that breaks down so there's no organization you're then fighting one on one and that gave the Germanic tribes the edge because they were used to this running hit-and-run battle approach in the dense voice the Germanic attackers fighting equipment was lighter and better suited for close combat the Germanic tribes were very clever they used the weather and to their advantage to win the battle they could fight in the forest in appalling conditions with huge amounts of rainfall and lots of mud and they knew that that weather that climate would actually give them the advantage over the Romans who were used to working in teams and also in heavy armor and were using a large shield and a short stabbing sword the Legionnaires didn't stand a chance the Battle of the toyota borg forest was the Romans greatest defeat they no longer believed in their own invincibility and never again attempted to conquer Germanic territory east of the Ryan Asuma shirisha in XANA brutal side of is ish SATA first kinda get Numair to become from volantis disorder diagnosis vaccine does management humor against even countin on the severity mother-in-law climate change is influenced by astronomical forces it depends on the Earth's orbit around the Sun the tilt of the Earth's axis and the level of solar activity all of which vary sometimes the Earth's orbit is almost circular at others more elliptical one orbital cycle takes 100,000 years during a 40,000 year cycle the angle of the Earth's axis also changes these variations cause regular changes in the Earth's climate as the intensity of solar radiation increases and decreases at about the time of Christ's birth solar radiation probably decreased the gulfstream cooled and the Earth's climate became much colder [Music] crops died all across North Africa when the summer rains failed Rome's granaries were empty climate change hit the Empire at its most vulnerable point if you look at the stresses of the Roman Empire and you look at whether it was the Republic or the Emperor's the one thing that they worried about was food and you see many accounts of rioting in Rome when there wasn't enough food if you're an emperor in charge of an empire you have to remember only one thing unhappy people cause revolution the people of Rome rebelled for their rulers the timing couldn't have been worse the huge Empire was already weakened by corruption and political discord the outer reaches of the Empire were also affected freezing cold winters led to hunger in many places the northern provinces were worst-hit this Bob mummy from northern Germany provides evidence of these extreme conditions the adolescents body was found by peat cutters in 1952 near the town of in Derby [Music] because of its slight build the body was long thought to be that of a girl but recent examination of the bones has revealed that they belonged to a fourteen-year-old boy they also tell us why he was so small the arm and leg bones show evidence of years of poor nutrition his growth was stunted and in some years he didn't grow at all for 12 of his 14 years the boy was severely malnourished it's likely that many others in gonorrhea also went hungry as the cold unstable climate made living conditions more hostile [Music] when invading Huns started to compete with Germanic tribes for the few remaining resources they were forced to flee a mass migration began as they moved south they displaced others soon hundreds of thousands of climate refugees were slowly advancing on the Roman Empire the harsh climate had at least one advantage frozen swamps and rivers were easy to cross and allowed the migrants to pass through Roman borders user to before nalusa van to the forgave and warned against these in the shaky-shaky the rice cancer do commercialize cancer Pratibha pasilla baba for gaps no cotton and assassin information legume converters control ian in the imam muda ryan Soviet command informant 10,000 and fun mentioned wine scene and skirmishes item Ganados are a matter of that coupon in 406 ad almost 90,000 people crossed the Rhine their minds and entered the Roman Empire more and more tribes invaded conquered and settled Roman territory this spelled the end for the once-powerful empire [Music] as Europe entered the Middle Ages the climate was still unstable particularly the spring of 536 the Sun suddenly darkened and temperatures dropped a Byzantine scholar reported that the Sun gave forth its light without brightness and seemed like the Sun in Eclipse according to Chinese sources there were summer snows drought and famine Irish monks also reported crop failures for a long time the darkened Sun remained a mystery today though most experts agree on what caused it the epidemic the schema Anglin or NSA approved vendor as it somebody when and who's we can a specific energy our of the schema else worked and the Starcatcher that a cataclysmic event did take place in 536 the illa Pongo volcano in what is now el salvador erupted leaving a caldera 17 kilometers wide and killing 100,000 people climatologist Robert dull sees a connection between the eruption of Ilopango and the darkening of the Sun that was observed at the time he believes the volcano caused the climate crisis in the early Middle Ages the volcano is basically the lake what you see here is an outline of the entire area that was erupted all at once when this volcano erupted 1500 years ago the lakes dimensions suggest the size of the magma chamber at the time of the eruption it's 270 meters deep with walls over 400 meters high it covers a total area of over 72 square kilometers the eruption must have been immense the dimensions of this vast crater are an indication that you'll upon go could have been one of the world's few super volcanoes Robert Dahl wants to prove that illah Pongo was big enough to trigger climate change to do that he needs to analyze the volcanic ash which can reveal a great deal about the eruption the ash from illa Pongo can still be found all around the lake in some places it forms towering cliffs [Music] the color of the ash holds the key illa pango ash is very light an important fact according to dull the light of the ash the higher the silica content only high-energy eruptions produce ash containing large quantities of silica when we find an ash that's light in color like this it's very exciting for someone like me because what it tells us is that it's both high in silica and that it was erupted explosively in a geologic instant might have been a day might have been two days but a huge amount of material was erupted all at once which tells us of the strength and magnitude and sheer immensity of this event the greater of volcanoes explosive forces the more ash deposited in its immediate vicinity and the further afield the ashes spread some of the illah pango ash cliffs are up to 400 metres high but dull has found Dilip Ango ash a lot further afield it formed Hills now overgrown by jungle the origin of these hills is clear from the pumice stones dull digs up what we learned from these deposits is just the tip of the iceberg really most of the material by far the far the great majority of this material is outside of the caldera not just on the margins of the caldera but many hundreds of kilometers away ash famila Pongo is found not only in El Salvador but also in Honduras Nicaragua and Guatemala and at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean [Music] even core samples from the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets contain ash from the 536 eruption the amount of material that was erupted during the eruption of Ilopango was at least 84 cubic kilometres a massive amount of rock thrown into the atmosphere at once some of that material would have blasted horizontally unto the landscape but a large amount would have gone up through the lower atmosphere into the stratosphere when that happens the climate cools which is exactly what happened after the illah pongo eruption during the eruption enormous quantities of ash and sulfur dioxide were propelled into the stratosphere [Music] for months these fine particles floated at an altitude of 25 kilometers Filippenko lies close to the equator from there winds carried the ash and sulfurous gases to both the north and south poles [Music] within weeks the blue planet was enveloped in a cloud of ash that blocked virtually all sunlight [Music] what the ancient chroniclers observed was a volcanic winter it lasted for 18 months and made the natural environment much more in hospital [Music] the ash cloud not only blocked the Sun but also brought cold and rain it had a devastating effect on human populations harvests failed stored food rotted people were hungry and weak and succumbed easily to bubonic plague the volcanic winter ended but the plague did not millions of people fell ill in the 14th century over one-third of Europe's population fell victim to the Black Death nature recovered more quickly than humans after the volcanic winter it reclaimed its territory only a few decades later dense forests had grown across vast swaths of Europe these forests were wild places where people only ventured to graze stock or collect wood in the early Middle Ages the forests were the home of wild animals in them wolves found shelter and room to roam they were feared and hated as man-eating monsters as were bears another forest dweller the antique amends amalgamation Kimani and hatted in a to a faster hashed buffoon middle era Bertina to America wanted amend first at this foreign art world in a to avert super horn divided vertically double forgot frontier and inner whoever's insightful vena cava bided give reasons and thus infirm beer involve the Shia village cat sir this is kaffir lesion invited to be in dementia Paul Harbor invited but as Irish wine it so last Indian eyes invited typed sheep and goats also grazed in the forests they were easy prey for hungry wolves forests became a symbol of an all-powerful nature and fear became the overpowering emotion of the time nasty angst for innovate india manish Melancon as illinois our system hints who got the sun goes through spirituality ed itinerant monks from ireland began preaching Christianity across Europe in the 6th century it spread across the continent at the same time as forest and wilderness baptism gave believers the promise of a merciful God who would save their immortal souls such teachings gave people hope in difficult times in China Buddhism became established the years of devastating drought after the illa Pongo eruption contributed to the spread of Buddhist teachings starving farmers found comfort in the possibility of being reborn into a more prosperous and happier life [Music] Islam spread through conquest according to some experts Muslims began their military campaigns after a long drought on the Arabian Peninsula in the 8th century Islam came to Spain [Music] but climatic conditions did not deteriorate everywhere on earth weather patterns around the equator were almost perfect [Music] regular monsoon rains drenched the fertile soil these ideal conditions saw the rise of prosperous and powerful kingdoms in Central America the Mayans built new cities many of them were home to over 10,000 people in Peru the Nazca civilization was based on the cultivation of corn many oak and sweet potato they created huge geoglyphs which may have been intended to thank their gods for plentiful harvests then the monsoons failed fields became deserts the NASCAR true even larger pictures in the earth perhaps hoping to appease the gods [Music] other places also became dryer the Mayans also felt the effects of a changing climate around 900 AD they abandoned their great cities prolonged drought threatened their culture the Nazca were also struggling to survive [Music] there's speculation that they became climate refugees moving higher into the Andes astronomers now have an explanation as to why the climate became so warm and dry at this time the reason was solar activity the Sun continuously produces vast amounts of energy which are released on its surface in the form of solar flares and geomagnetic storms this heat energy affects the amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth this radiation is strong at some times and weaker at others this is because solar activity is always fluctuating dark patches on the sun's surface indicate how much energy is being produced the more patches the higher the solar activity [Music] the number of sunspots Peaks every 11 years such a peak occurred in 800 AD solar activity was at maximum levels and solar radiation particularly intense the earth began to heat up the North Atlantic which had been covered in solid pack ice became navigable all year round a thor set in from the Arctic to the European mainland opening the way for sea born invaders the Vikings reached Britain at the end of the eighth century they came to plunder with their attack on Lindisfarne Priory in northern England the Vikings stormed into history soon they were feared all across Europe as bloodthirsty Raiders but the Vikings were also pioneers and explorers the mild climate allowed them to sail west across the North Atlantic the Vikings when they went exploring were taking advantage of the Medieval Warm Period and during this warm period the Gulf Stream was actually coming much further north and giving much more warmth to Western Europe but it also what it allowed was the retreat of sea ice so the sea ice that usually comes to at least Iceland during the winter was much further to the north which allowed the Vikings to not only sell all the way round to Mediterranean and to exchange goods with the civilizations there it also then encouraged the exploration of the rest of the world wherever melting snow and ice had uncovered virgin soils the Vikings settled first they discovered Iceland at the time it was almost ice-free and uninhabited in 1985 the Viking seafarers reached the next milestone in their westward expansion Greenland [Music] they built large settlements along the coasts and rivers because of that warmer climate you could actually grow crops so all the agriculture from Scandinavia they can literally just transport and take to Iceland and to Greenland the warmer weather allowed the Norseman to make another even bolder voyage of discovery right across the Atlantic around 1000 AD Leif Eriksson reached Newfoundland almost 500 years before the voyage of Christopher Columbus meanwhile temperatures in Europe continued to rise as the increased solar activity continued [Music] the landscape became a sea of color as temperatures rose forests began to grow at altitudes above 2,000 meters [Music] grain and other crops could be grown even at high altitudes the dark years of hardship and hunger were over conditions for agriculture were the best they'd been for centuries farmers began using new technology to increase their yields knowledge of the harness spread from Asia to Europe it allowed horses to pull more weight until larger fields the seasons were reliable spring summer autumn and winter came and went in a predictable pattern the first weather forecasts were folk sayings based on farmers observations of the seasons the simplest person can assess for unity I was under some above enough Vetter and your mother should I be loosened coming from I'm Yours misty our plan on Donna Mazyck Invicta agriculture became more intensive one field was left fellow one was used for legumes and another for grain this three field system was far more productive farmers were able to produce more than they needed so they could trade their surplus produce [Music] they took it to the markets in nearby towns demand increased and new products were offered for sale more and more merchants set up businesses village marketplaces grew into flourishing towns and cities this set the scene for the emergence of a new social order consisting of free citizens and wealthy merchants in steel Mistretta business unthought-of an cream abundantly fund in its yard syndrome can take off the men's rights position of an expert even phone call to believe that you'll when Tom it is the crunch time the league for the 16 demo Diane of embed phones on a bed Amsterdam Warsaw Freiburg Leipzig The Hague three quarters of Europe cities arose during the favorable climatic conditions of the High Middle Ages [Music] Venice with its colonial empire and vast trade network was Europe's source for goods from many foreign lands it wasn't long before Western Europe began to use coins first ones that were valued by weight and later the standard silver Denarius increasing prosperity created the foundation for education the arts and culture Europe's first universities were founded in Bologna Paris and Oxford the moderate climate inspired a new architectural style gothic churches had large windows to let the Sun in [Music] construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 slim arches and stained glass windows dominate the soaring presbytery these allow light to flood the interior of the Cathedral this extraordinary building is the manifestation of a confident and optimistic Society [Music] by 1250 kingdoms had been established all over Europe [Music] the Holy Roman Empire expanded it conquered Sicily and was bigger than ever before but then everything changed once again climate was to make history in the second half of the thirteenth century Europe cooled significantly [Music] the trigger for this was a number of volcanic eruptions in different parts of the world [Music] most of them were located along the world's largest volcanic belt the Pacific Ring of Fire [Music] first to erupt in 1257 was somalis volcano in Indonesia then Sicilies Mount Etna spewed fire in 1453 the crew a volcano in Vanuatu exploded violently [Music] finally the laki fissure in Iceland erupted continuously for eight months it's estimated to have been one of the deadliest eruptions in history [Music] all these eruptions spewed ash and sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere they affected the world's climate for almost 500 years the mid 13th century marked the start of the longest cold period since the end of the Ice Age more than 10,000 years before [Music] in Europe the effects of this little ice age were described by monks town scribes and chroniclers in thousands of documents climatologist rudika Glaser has studied these historical sources they describe vividly that devastating consequences of periods of extreme cold as well as other natural disasters these Illustrated broadsheets from Flanders depict floods that hit Central Europe on an unprecedented scale in 1342 thousands perished in what was known as Saint Mary Magdalene's flood it's not find hit Sigma somebody who Telugu Sagawa this coaster who passata let's in Towson div meet 414 swanda miles high protein burger is important is in Kansas and patina up courage inception device woman I'm Veronica visa shoots become normal a visor a Kanan can garbage luteinizing Hamza Gazoo Klein a nice on the back line to t even student fatigued and avoided there were destructive floods from cologne to Vienna from the rhyme to the Danube in Frankfurt the mine River grows to almost 8 meters along the Danube alone over 6,000 people drowned but the chroniclers didn't only record catastrophic floods in the summer of 1586 the citizens of Ghent feared for their lives a ferocious storm struck the city people and even buildings were washed away but terrified populace believed that demonic forces were at work but the terrifying tempest of August 1586 was not caused by demons this second system initiative tightened the poison and percival horizon so the staff at Acton dialect Estes yosuga antonin artaud his applicable dead warrior evidence suggests it was a tornado that tore through gained the storm had long-term effects on the city's inhabitants because essential structures had been destroyed Mahad oft is WagonR song apart under shade in France I can cause Agnes Anita to compensation Depot committed to bound with the moon and Vita to power TV era insulation people believed that God was punishing them by sending all these natural disasters during the five hundred years of the Little Ice Age unstable climatic conditions made life a daily struggle for survival divine in that heart indeed Argonauts own fun vittles extreme non from own veteran from comic artist Hornbeck often on disability mentioned he found hope transient exactly tender skilfully to have doomsday belt on dog Angus Angus out but it was not only extreme weather events that caused suffering the keep on with the Little Ice Age is the actual cold conditions after the population growth of the Medieval Warm Period where there seemed to be abundant food for this growing population the Little Ice Age had a huge effect the growing season for crops was much shorter and the climate was much colder and so you find that as the Little Ice Age starts you get famine throughout Western Europe he had a profound effect on human society and there were lots and lots of deaths through starvation records show that sometimes everything just stopped this happened in the German town of Augsburg in 1658 this more nights here now if people will be had a so hard to fly on Kitty head there's Moneta and internal distillation highly mild Mullen himavan sake you know 94 1 sinned that's my language side it had a bite in Conan not only were summers too cold for good harvests but also much too wet [Music] continual rain caused seeds and crops to go moldy and spoil famine killed many and weakened those who survived they succumbed quickly when the plague returned Europe's population had soared during the high middle ages but now it fell by one third in just one century desperate people sought an explanation for their misery [Applause] decline eyesight at this FULFILLER mention as an Oscar Spotnitz I decrease it August 8 in a cruiser I'm the Ohio fish and invert relation Chardin within the advert of the cardinal I denote omission this miniature Kendon zones are ensuring in a client eyesight this is consumer trust man guards who desert side and the future cover hexa for foil Gong had the in zofran you know was allegiances among some cream of understate the witch hunts targeted people on the margins of society many of those accused of having made a pact with the devil were lower-class elderly and female the business term lighter or sinful tabata coin that wouldn't the Armand and wonderful dehyde give heart we see this will become active as we MC it still harsh like hibike if you dare dear even Tesla had he doesn't matter came after she among have o Govinda therefore I am delighted unhurt these are Indian folk of often wooden owl they can't enter damn it woman so - sergeant if I stick to invader but so I come to see how octi was a Tavern on the view built era when we built a turbine with I'll incur some consequence in the exit apply knowing that we don't during the witch hunt sparked by the Little Ice Age around 60,000 innocent people were burned at the stake [Music] but the weather didn't change [Music] temperatures continue to drop glaciers advanced all across North America and Europe [Music] many people abandoned villages and farms in the mountains because of avalanches landslides and glacial ice [Music] near the town of shaman II in the French Alps for example glaciers engulfed whole villages elsewhere they cut off important supply routes in Greenland and Iceland to massive glaciers were encroaching [Music] the ongoing climate crisis was reflected in the political climate unrest spread throughout Europe the second defenestration of Prague caused the collapse of the uneasy peace between the European powers and marked the beginning of the 30 Years War soon most of Europe was involved [Music] the wall was mostly fought with in the Holy Roman Empire in some places up to 2/3 of the population died and not just on the battlefields most casualties were civilians vogue and abandoned Deloitte women's et de Malaga muffin I'm shot as this Givi ever mesquite Lavanya of kefir leha fit in the mitt romney filtered as fair and find want d goes into a sign of TV via english common the common my sister I paid him endure so action suit under as a skipped goes past APD mean skip to force a PD means keep talking after having community on a metal under or the mid and run conch had negative skeleton I want the since or Suzanne the Agnes the guns hybrid netted a blossom as a sneaky a creek they had to teasing horse and tourists on food so this is a glee the climber all gone still a in France cold damp weather caused repeated crop failures in Paris the price of bread and other staples soared the situation soon escalated dimension vanished musician of UEFA's Act piranhas knew it isn't an attack assortment of the labels of atoms into happy de the well-fed members of the aristocracy were far removed from the concerns of their people by the time the nobility realized how explosive the situation had become because of this lack of basic supplies it was too late ischemic inferior polito's esteem order of the answer numata an inglorious house for the Hans I'm who via miss Anton have onions tomatoes a friend of Alan harm da failure to fir cornice for town food in house on this conservative nodule to ensues shakuni's house mr. zipser not knowing our cities afar home cans personas pitamaha on the 14th of july 1789 paris reached boiling point armed citizens stormed the Bastille the guards were forced to capitulate [Music] the attack marked the start of the French Revolution in the years to come the royal family and many other members of the nobility were executed by guillotine the French people overthrew the monarchy and democracy returned to Europe for the first time in two thousand years one slogan from the French Revolution was liberty equality and fraternity now France's national motto [Music] in 1815 the Little Ice Age entered a final dark phase triggered by another geological disaster Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted it the massive explosion ejected almost twice as much material as in 536 including vast clouds of fine ash that remained in the atmosphere for months there was a large fraction that went straight up into the upper atmosphere that Ash worked its way around the globe in the upper atmosphere as a dust fail and that dust fail reflected the sun's radiation in a way that would cause climate cooler 1816 was a year without a summer all over the planet unseasonal frost and snow caused crop failures and disastrous famines in Europe in Germany hunger triggered the first of three great nineteenth-century waves of migration thousands left Hamburg and crossed the Atlantic to America [Music] finally the cold eased in about 1850 a warm phase began bringing stable moderate temperatures it has shaped our climate ever since just before this warm period began humans embarked on a time of dramatic technological and social change the Industrial Revolution Harold at the age of machines ever since technological progress has brought prosperity to industrial nations but it has also caused human induced climate change on an alarming and unprecedented scale natural disasters are nature's way of sounding the alarm bell our planet has heated up and is struggling to cope with global warming [Music] for some time scientists have been asking us to acknowledge these signs and change course [Music] we are at that point where we can decide what sort of climate we want to have in the future if we as a collective in the world all the nations that actually reduce climate change that would be amazing because what it means is for the first time instead of climate controlling us our global society has decided we are going to control the climate and we are going to make sure that we have a stable climate for all future generations all climate change affects life on Earth [Music] climate makes history it always has done and it always will [Music]

Channel: hazards and catastrophes

Views: 63,496

Rating: 4.5440979 out of 5

Keywords: weather, weather history, weather event, weather climate, weather change, weather seasons, weather documentary, weather earth, weather climate change, weather events, weather effects, weather man, weather effects on mankind, weather science, weather ice age, weather deserts, weather homo sapiens, weather neanderthals, weather national geographic, weather evolution, weather summer, weather winter, weather spring, weather fall, weather corona, weather coronavirus

Id: n7wehvxZLAs

Length: 102min 18sec (6138 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020