Mild climate spurs Genghis Khan’s cavalry

/mild-climate-spurs-genghis-khans-cavalr

  • @reka
    Reka CC BY-NC-SA

    Mild climate spurs Genghis Khan’s cavalry | Climate News Network

    ▻http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2014/03/mild-climate-spurs-genghis-khans-cavalry

    By Tim Radford

    Scientists have unearthed possible evidence that climate change played a role in the expansion of the Mongol empire of Genghis Khan. They say an exceptionally warm period promoted grass growth, vital for the Mongols’ legendary horses.

    http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/MongolCavalrymen.jpg

    LONDON, 12 March - Climate change – already implicated in the fall of Bronze Age civilisations in the Mediterranean and in the Indus Valley - may also account for the rise of one of the most fearsome empires in history.

    US researchers mapping the pattern of rainfall in medieval Mongolia think they may have identified a season of plenty that put Genghis Khan on the road towards world domination.

    #gengis_khan #climat #histoire #empire #épopée

    Reka CC BY-NC-SA
    • @simplicissimus
      Simplicissimus

      Et huit siècles plus tard,…

      And since 1990, the country has experienced a series of devastating summer droughts often followed by a more than usually long cold winter.

      After the last such, an estimated eight million animals died, herdsmen became impoverished, and the poorest have moved to the capital of Ulaanbaatar, which is now home to half of the nation’s 3 million people.

      “That last big drought is an example of what may happen in the future, not just in Mongolia but in a lot of inner Asia,” says Pederson. “The heat is a double whammy – even if the rainfall doesn’t change, the landscape is going to get drier.”

      The potential consequences for modern Mongolia, the authors warn, could be severe.

      Les évolutions climatiques éventuelles venant compléter l’impact dévastateur des modifications socio-économiques actuelles qui provoquent sous nos yeux la disparition du pastoralisme nomade et la désertification du pays.

      Simplicissimus
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