Did you know there were extensive droughts during the Medieval Warm Period?

Question

Some people have argued that the Midieval Warm Period (which was almost as warm as today) was a prosperous time for people and the planet. However, according to scientists from UMass, U of Arizona, and NOAA:

"There is evidence for widespread hydrological anomalies from 900 to 1300 A.D. Prolonged droughts affected many parts of the western United States (especially eastern California and the western Great Basin) (14). Other parts of the world also experienced persistent hydrological anomalies (15)."

"A repetition of such anomalies today, with more than 10 times as many people on Earth as in High Medieval time, could be catastrophic."

http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/bradley/bradley2003d.pdf

Does this make you rethink the supposition that warm periods are beneficial and in all cases "warmer is better"?

Answer 1

I just finished writing a paper on droughts in the US southwest during the MWP. Of all the places that were affected by the Medieval Warm Period, multi-decadal droughts hit the four corners region the hardest, and is likely what brought an end to the Anasazi culture. Of course before their civilization was brought down through climate change, they went through a period of warfare, starvation and cannibalism. I'm sure we too won't start eating each other. Well I hope not anyway.

Edit.
Mikira, the Anasazi people didn't die out, their culture died out. After over a thousand years occupying Chaco Canyon and developing the greatest architecture and agricultural system found in pre-Columbian North America, climate change was the death blow to them as a culture. It appears the people themselves were dispersed and likely merged with the Hohokam and Mogollon.

Tomcat, humans may have invented irrigation but where do you get the water from? Right now aquifers are being depleted and you can't count on their being sufficient rainfall and glacial melt water to feed the rivers.

Answer 2

I live in the Southeast, and we are in a very bad drought!

I am not talking about a few months, this has been more than a year, and the lakes are drying up.

Atlanta GA, is in threat of running out of water, which would be very devastating!

This happened before, there was a 5 year drought that ended in 2002. this latest drought started in 2006.

You think there is no global warming? people from Florida are moving here, because it has gotten so warm here.

Yesterday, it was 65 degrees, it should be around 40. The temperature has been about 5 degrees higher this entire year most of the time. You can be armchair scholars, but I am seeing it. Anoles (a common tropical lizard) used to be rare here, now you see lots of them! Yeah, sure the Earth isn't getting warmer! Get out of your air conditioned houses, and look for yourself! what I said here is documented (except for the anoles, I think I am the only one that has noticed that)!

Answer 3

The Great Basin is no where near the Midwest in which most of the crops are grown in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Basin

http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/greatbasin/greatbasin.htm

And even if the major drought did cause the Great Basin - Look at all the beauty that sprung from it.

I've been to a lot of the places in the Great Basin and I even plan to move to the state that is the center stone of the Great Basin - Nevada - that state still doesn't get much rain fall.

I wonder why that article you mentioned didn't bring up the conditions in the Midwest, East Coast and Canada? Where Native American Tribes thrived. Oh or even Central and South America. I shouldn't forget Mexico and the Alaskan territory.

Edit: linlyons - You seem to be jumping around and not sticking to a time period. The article mentions 900 - 1300. That's what I'm refering to when I state why didn't it mention the Midwest the Dust Bowl happened in 1939 - 639 years later.

As for the Mayan's, we still don't know why that civilization failed.

Here's a good site about the Mayan Culture:

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/MAYAS.HTM

Funny it doesn't say anything about the climate warming up being what caused them to abandon their cities.

Here's a good site about the Anasazi Indians - It never claims they completely died out:

http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_ana.html

As for the Central and Southern tribes they were wiped out by the people taking over their land and putting them on reservations. I'm glad they all weren't killed off by those men that first came and took over this land from the Native Americans.

Edit - linlyons - I forgot to correct you on the Hopi:

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/hopi.htm

It seems they were going strong in the 1870's hmmm that would be at least 570 years after 1300.

Any other tribe you'd like to name?

Edit: linlyons - Here's a great Website that talks about the Central American Civilizations and it appears the Aztec civilization started in 1200 and is still going strong today.

http://home.cfl.rr.com/crossland/AncientCivilizations/Civilizations_of_the_Americas/civilizations_of_the_americas.html

Edit: Thanks for backing me up Gwens, since it wasn't me Edit: Thanks for backing me up Gwens, since it wasn't me who claimed they completely died out, it was Linlyons. Also note that the Maya abandoned their cities in 900 AD at the very start of this warming period, and like I said earlier, they still don't have a clear understanding to why they just left their cities, who knows maybe the Aztecs are their descendents, but with 300 years separating the two tribes it's hard to know for sure.

Answer 4

Makes sense to me. Warm period. Drought. Seems to go together. I'm just glad when people who believe in man made global warming admit that there was a medieval warm period. We wouldn't have that hockey stick graph if we included ALL the temperature variations of the last 1000 years. I've always been curious about the notion that warm periods are better. Personally, I can't wait for it to cool off a little.

Answer 5

I guess it's a good thing humans invented irrigation, isn't it. It won't help much when the LIA returns.

Answer 6

No but it does make me think about natures role on the environment.

Answer 7

I'm glad you can come to terms with the fact that we had warm periods before the industrial revolution.

Warmer is better.

Answer 8

thanks for the information