The Fate of Civilizations: Natural Cataclysms that Changed the World

We rarely have to think about the influence of climate on the course of history. What contributed to the birth of three great ancient civilizations — Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus-Harappan? How did a moderate global temperature drop of just half a degree make everyone talk about global warming, melting glaciers, and a worldwide flood? Few know that a sharp temperature drop, specifically a catastrophic cooling, caused the Time of Troubles and the 'unhappy reign' of Boris Godunov. According to contemporaries, on July 28, 1601, 'in Moscow, in the middle of summer, great snow fell, and it was freezing; people traveled in sleds.' Indeed, what can you say if the temperature in the last century was much lower than it is now, and characters in Dostoevsky's works wore coats in the summer? Our entire civilization is a product of a brief period of 'thaw.' Four hundred years before Ovid, not even grapes or olives ripened in Rome. One of the most complex scientific tasks — tracing the impact of climate on human history — is solved by the author in an extraordinarily engaging manner! This investigation is filled with a multitude of facts, unconventional examples, and unexpected evidence confirming that climate 'kitchen' is perhaps one of the most difficult-to-explain processes humanity faces.