Global warming is changing the planet. The increasing global temperature, for instance, is linked to the 15 percent decline in the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean, which experts fear could disrupt weather patterns.
Climate change is also seen as the primary driver of melting ice and rise in sea level that threatens to submerge coastal cities and island nations.
Surviving Climate Change
How can humans survive a changing world amid rising temperatures? Findings of a new study offer hope that humanity will be able to ride out global warming.
In a study published in the Journal of Quaternary Science, researchers showed that trade and social networking have helped human ancestors survive a climate-changing catastrophe 40,000 years ago. The findings suggest the staying interconnected can help modern humans survive climate change.
Social And Trading Network
Julien Riel-Salvatore, from Université de Montréal, Canada, and Fabio Negrino, from Università di Genova, Italy analyzed archaeological finds that include ancient tools, ornaments, and human remains discovered in the prehistoric rock shelter Riparo Bombrini in Liguria, Italy.
Some of the first homo sapiens lived in Liguria. Home sapiens were already in the region for about 1,000 years when a climate-changing eruption of the Phlegraean Fields supervolcano occurred. A 2010 study suggested that an eruption of this volcano about 40,000 years ago may have contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals.
Unlike the Neanderthals, the group of early homo sapiens that lived in Liguria did not go locally extinct or abandoned the region when they had faced sudden changes in their climate. What they did was adapt.
The archeologists found that some of the flint used by this group of homo sapiens were from hundreds of kilometers away, which suggests they had very extensive social and trading network that helped with their survival for the next 4,000 years.
"The Proto‐Aurignacian shows some internal variability that could reflect an adaptation to changing environmental conditions, overall it remains very stable in terms of its techno‐typology and social geography across these events," the researchers wrote in their study.
Key To Survival
The archaeologists acknowledged it is a "bit of a leap" to say that what occurred thousands of years ago may help predict how modern-day humans will cope with climate change but lessons from the past offer hint at how people today can survive these changes.The researchers cited the importance of cooperation amid challenges humans face today.
"Cooperation and resilient social networks were really key in helping people ride out dramatic climate change in the past," said Riel-Salvatore
