Example Of Essay On Climate’s Impact On Historical Civilization

Introduction:

Climate change has been a worldwide issue ever since the existence of modern technology started. People have been very concerned of what is happening to the planet. Global warming and greenhouse gases are the result of the industrial revolution in the early 20th century. Dangerous gases are emitted to the atmosphere and have evidently destroyed the ozone layer. This has cause various weather changes including rapid formation of tropical disturbance in the pacific.
Is it still healthy for us? Is it still habitable for humans for the next century? These are the following questions that are very imminent to each scientist and other concerned groups including the governments worldwide.
Evidently, climate change has been one of the major concerns nowadays but how about in the earlier times? Did our ancestor thought of climate change? Or did they observed that there is happening to the surroundings? Well, these are just questions yet to be answered with this paper.
According to many historians, animals moved from place to place because of the changes in the climate. It can be clearly seen in many movies such as Madagascar and Ice Age. These are just representations but as a matter of fact during the Ice Age animals had to leave behind their old habitat to find abundant source of food. Consequently, they also need to find warmth especially those animals that are not adapted to low temperatures (warm blooded animals).
In relation with human civilizations climate change has also done effects to their way of living. This paper will tackle the cultural effects of climate change before the 1600. Notably, the earliest civilization will be considered in this context.

Cultural Effects of Climate Change

According to a book written by Behringer (2009), the world has experienced many changes that inter related with each other. As a matter of fact the physical climate changes for over 10,000 years have been changing the way of life for many human societies in the past. The author said that there are major changes in human behavior that is related to climate change. As an intelligent species, humans are bound to be very observant of their environment. As a matter of fact the early medieval period has been greatly affected by climate change culturally and even politically.
Taking into account the civilization that existed from 1000 B.C to 200 AD, they are very responsive to the climate changes. According to scientist, the climate change in the biblical era has caused the destruction of many civilizations and has also allowed the creation of the new civilization including the “New Kingdom of Israel”.
The human civilization present before the 1600 includes the civilization that started the innovation that would later make the advancement in the world today. Considering, the fact that humans are very competitive as well as protective of its own kin. Any threat that would be very clear to them that would cause death shall be enacted with outmost priority and actions. Vegetation is the major concern of human civilizations in the era before 1600. Of course, vegetation is the primary source of food for cattle and also a secondary one for humans. It could be that humans are more concern on how to survive rather than on how to change the climate, because foolishly they could not (Humb, 1995).
Additionally, during the time 300-500 AD the great migration period happened. German tribes and the so called Vikings emerge to the papers of history books. Vikings are known to be vicious tribes that kill human mercilessly. Some concepts of them are that they are also cannibals. Regarding this human behavior many historians tend to debate on this matter.
The examination of brute personality and how it was made and communicated amid the Migration Age has evoked exchange among researchers. Herwig Wolfram, in examining the comparison of migratio gentium with Völkerwanderung, watches that Michael Schmidt presented the mathematical statement in his 1778 history of the Germans. Wolfram watched that the criticalness of gens as an organic group was moving actually amid the early Middle Ages; "to entangle matters, we have no chance to get of contriving a phrasing that is not gotten from the idea of nationhood made amid the French Revolution".
The "primordialistic" standard predominated amid the nineteenth century. Researchers, for example, German language specialist Johann Gottfried Herder saw tribes as rational natural (racial) elements, utilizing the term to allude to discrete ethnic gatherings. He accepted that the Volk were a natural entirety, with a center character and soul obvious in craftsmanship, writing and language. These were seen as inherent qualities unaffected by outside impacts, even victory. Language, specifically, was seen as the most critical statement of ethnicity. They contended that gatherings having the same (or comparable) language had a typical character and ancestry. The romantic perfect idea that there had once been a solitary German, Celtic or Slavic individuals who began from a typical country and talked a typical tongue helped give an applied system to political developments of the following century (18th-19th), for example, Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism (Wolfram, 1979).
Evidently, there are great effects culturally the climate change has done. It is clearly seen that the language difference between once united tribe has been a variant of one another. The practice also of barbaric methods of death has also been an indirect effect of climate change. Humans that time are very keen in finding ways on how to survive the bad weather. More importantly, when we defined cultural effects of climate, it also contains the entirety of a human tribe or a community. With respect to these German tribes that are greatly affected by the “little ice age”, they are very concerned on how they would escape the wrath of nature and ultimately producing a new way of life.
The early “ liitle ice age”, has been considered as a pioneer of evident changes in the way human lives. A notable example is that the population of Greenland specifically the Norse tribes have starved to death and has opted to change their grain-based diet. Undeniably, it is caused by the harsh winter resulting from climate change.
On the other hand when the little Ice age happened there are very intriguing changes in the European society. Witchcraft has been very thought to be very existent in this period because of the imminent cold weather.
What's more on Behringer's record is that the changing good economy of European atmosphere amid the fifteenth to seventeenth century progress is relevant to our current talk about environmental change and ethical quality. For Behringer (2009), the solid connection between the 'little ice age' and witch mistreatment 'came not from the congregation or from the state; it came 'from beneath'. It originated from the people through their quest for responsibility and importance. What we are seeing at work today in our own particular society is a battle in the middle of elitist and prevalent presentations of environmental change and of its ethical and political implications.
This could mean that people that time are very afraid that they will be changed by the powerful witches. As a matter of fact, witches in the late 14th century are also believed to be powerful beings that can alter reality or even cause death. Some believe that they have “telekinetic powers”. With these accounts, people are threatened by their existence. Culturally, they will be treated as a plague to the society that would later abuse the common people. As a response to the growing power of so called “witches”, politicians that time imposed law that would prosecute them. Guillotine was mainly the widely used form of punishment to crimes that includes witchcraft.
Indeed the cultural change of the continent has been widely affected by the climate change. Much to historian’s surprise, the so called witches also fled from the European continent not only because of the threat posed to them but also to the threat of climate change. The main misconception of them is that they are not normal people, which in fact is very wrong. They also need to eat nevertheless.
In continuation with this topic, Behringer has proposed that the European authorities are quite insecure of what are the abilities of witches. While it’s quite true, it could also mean another change in culture due to climate change. Indirectly speaking, the change in the attitudes of these so called leaders at that time has been affecting the over-all look of the society.
The society that time are vey intolerant of the “witch” thing that was somehow caused by the imminent cold weather. Many argue that this cold weather is related to the existence of the witches in the continent. But never of these concepts has been proven true only speculations. But guess what it has entirely changed the face of the European Continent in regards to this issue that would be certainly rejected in today’s modern setting.
The effects of climate to culture has been very evident in every human civilization existed on the planet. Not only with the political system but also with art climate change has tackled unto.
The art in the medieval period is evidently portraying the cold weather. That would pertain to both sides of the world including the eastern hemisphere.
On the other hand Chinese farmers during the “ little ice age” period has dumped the traditional planting of oranges in Jiangxi province. Basically, that would not allow the great yield because of the temperate soil the oranges need. The tradition has run for over two centuries. Considering that fact the Chinese culture has been very consistent with their methods of planting oranges but with a single blow of typhoons and other calamities caused by climate change all has been abandoned (Reiter, 2000).

Conclusion:

Based on the findings about cultural change basically a result from climate change, a relative amount of inferences are compounded. It is imminent for a human being to find ways on how to adapt to its surroundings. Consequently, the culture that they have before adapting has been diminished or added with another type of human behavior. The effects of climate change during the time before the 1600 has evidently caused many civilizations to explore the vastness of the world.
All in all, humans are intelligent species that has been adapting for many centuries whether intrinsically or extrinsically.

Works Cited:

Wolfram, Thomas J. Dunlap, tr. History of the Goths(1979) 1988:5
Reiter P (2000). "From Shakespeare to Defoe: malaria in England in the Little Ice Age". Emerging Infect. Dis. 6 (1): 1–11. doi:10.3201/eid0601.000101.PMC 2627969. PMID 10653562.
Behringer, W., (2009). A Cultural History of Climate. Retrieved from: [http://www.academia.edu/883075/_Book_Review_A_cultural_history_of_climate_by_Wolfgang_Behringer] Dec 21, 2009
Humb, R., (1995). “Climate, History and the Modern World.”