Angkor & Khmer Empire May Have Been Victims Of Climate Change

[hatrack]

A Sydney conference has heard that climate change led to the fall of the ancient Cambodian city of Angkor. The theory has been presented to an international gathering under the patronage of UNESCO.

Sydney University's Roland Fletcher says the famous temples were the medium-size constructions of Angkor. From the 8th century 1,000 square kilometres of rainforest made way for the low density city. "The magnitude of the place is an important factor in how it ultimately collapsed," he said. "It also had a gigantic infrastructure nearly the equivalent of freeways that you get in a modern city except that these are canals and embankments."

Associate Professor Fletcher believes the medieval mini ice age caused climatic instability that lead to water and sediment overwhelming Angkor's delicately balanced infrastructure.

"Our field work is leading us to conclude the city was abandoned when destabilised river flows, due to land clearing, and new monsoon patterns, due to climate change, made the site unsustainable," he said in a statement.

EDIT

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1693813.htm

[Warpy]

1. Canyon de Chelly and the Anasazi culture both collapsed

out west due to our periodic droughts.

It's been suggested that our ancestors left Africa about 55,000 years ago due to a climate change, island hopping their way around the globe and then moving inland, following game and edible plants.

We may be resilient enough to survive this one, too, but not all 6 billion of us and not with our present oil based cultures intact.