Oh Noes: Climate Change May Have Ended The Tang Dynasty

Is this your fault? Or those Other People driving fossil fueled vehicles

Climate Change May Have Led to the Demise of the Tang Dynasty

Climate change in recent years has fueled migration worldwide. Floods in Pakistan have forced millions from their homes, while the island nation of Kiribati’s entire existence is in doubt due to rising sea levels, according to NASA. A new study suggests that mass migration due to changing climates is not a new occurrence. The research explores the impact of droughts and floods in China between the years 800 and 907.

Writing in Communications Earth and Environment, a multinational research team detailed how these unusual weather patterns influenced political and social upheaval during this period, which was marked by the collapse of the previously dominant Tang dynasty.

This dynasty ruled Imperial China from 618 to 907 and achieved remarkable social and political organization. The era was marked by complex administrative systems and a “golden age” of cosmopolitan culture that supported arts such as woodblock printing, poetry, and painting. They also allowed diverse religious freedom.

The authors focused on the hydrology of the Huanghe River (Yellow River) during this period. They analyzed climate proxy data from sources such as tree rings. These rings can indicate climate conditions over huge time spans. Each annual ring can tell researchers whether the year was dry or rainy, as wet years help trees grow faster and produce thicker rings.

Regardless of which source determines the Dark Ages start and end, 900AD was in the Dark Ages, a period of cooling. Most think that ended about the year 1000, leading to the Medieval Warm Period. So, it wasn’t warming that caused the issue. Funny how nothing in the article mentions this.

Citizens in the region had increasingly shifted from cultivating millet to wheat and rice. Although the reasons for this change are unclear, it meant that climate-resistant millet was replaced by more vulnerable crops. Wheat and rice require more water to grow than millet. Drier periods would have exacerbated food shortages, said Kempf. This increased the risk of famines during droughts.

Drier due to cooling. And here we go

The dynasty eventually splintered into smaller kingdoms after the collapse. The study raises important points about how the weather shifts. In combination with social pressures, it can destabilize societies. As man-made climate change makes our weather more unpredictable, lessons from the past may help societies of today reckon with a less certain world.