Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini:
Transcript
- 0:00Okay. I have two options this week. I'm just
- 0:04trying to decide on which one, and I'm also trying
- 0:06to... Well, I'm going to give you the sources.
- 0:09I believe you've done that before, and let's
- 0:11decide based on that, because I have no other
- 0:13way how to broadly... It seems the fairest. ...get
- 0:16you to pick. So we got burstcoms .com. I think
- 0:21that's what that says. And the other one is fizz
- 0:23.org. Hmm. Let's do phys .org. We always like
- 0:27a good physics one. Yeah. So this is from phys
- 0:29.org. And sorry, I assume P -H -Y -S, right?
- 0:34No, this one's F -I -Z -Z. Oh, okay. Just kidding.
- 0:38It's the one you said. Okay. You're like, wow,
- 0:41I chose so wrong. This one is by Nature Publishing
- 0:46Group, edited by Lisa Locke, reviewed by Robert
- 0:49Egan. Major droughts linked to ancient Indus
- 0:53Valley civilizations collapse. I don't know when
- 0:57it's from. Successive major droughts, each lasting
- 1:01longer than 85 years, were likely a key factor
- 1:04in the eventual fall of the Indus Valley civilization,
- 1:07according to a paper published in Communications
- 1:09Earth and Environment. The findings may help
- 1:12explain why this major ancient civilization,
- 1:15a contemporary of ancient Egypt located around
- 1:19the modern India -Pakistan border, slowly declined,
- 1:22and highlights how environmental factors could
- 1:25shape ancient societies. They The Indus Valley
- 1:28civilization was one of the earliest urban cultures,
- 1:32existing between 5 ,000 and 35 ,000 years ago
- 1:35around the Indus River and its tributaries in
- 1:38modern -day Pakistan and northwest India. At
- 1:41its peak between 4 ,500 and 3 ,900 years ago,
- 1:44its culture was characterized by advanced cities
- 1:47and sophisticated water management systems. However,
- 1:51the reason for the civilization's prolonged decline
- 1:54after this peak are not yet fully understood.
- 1:57Female Mishra and colleagues simulated climate
- 2:00conditions across the IBC region between 5 ,000
- 2:03and 3 ,000 years ago. They combined these results
- 2:06with data from several indirect measures of past
- 2:09climate conditions, including the geochemistry
- 2:12of stalocytes and stalagmites in two Indian caves
- 2:16and the water level records of five lakes in
- 2:19northwest India. From this, the authors identified
- 2:23a temperature increase over the period of approximately
- 2:260 .5 degrees Celsius and a decrease in average
- 2:29annual rainfall across the region of between
- 2:3210 % to 20%. They were also able to identify
- 2:36four long -term droughts between 4 ,450 and 3
- 2:40,400 years ago, each lasting more than 85 years
- 2:43and affecting between 65 % and 91 % of the IVC
- 2:48region, which means... Something. Indus Valley
- 2:54Civilization. Indus Valley. Yeah. Yeah. The authors
- 2:57suggest that these droughts influenced settlement
- 3:00location choice in the IVC between 5 ,000 and
- 3:034 ,500 years ago. They reported that settlements
- 3:06were concentrated in areas with more rainfall.
- 3:09However, from 4 ,500 years ago onward, settlements
- 3:13shifted closer to the Indus River, probably as
- 3:16the drought started to affect water availability.
- 3:19The final 113 -year -long drought that they identify
- 3:23between 3531 and 3418 years ago coincides with
- 3:29agricultural evidence of major de -urbanization
- 3:32in the IVC. The authors conclude that the IVC
- 3:36likely did not collapse suddenly as a result
- 3:38of any one climate event, but instead declined
- 3:41slowly with the prolonged droughts of major contributory
- 3:45factors. End of article. Okay, so yeah, I think
- 3:50we've always known that water is part of a burgeoning
- 3:53civilization. So it's, I don't know, it's a prediction,
- 3:57I think, of what's going to be happening in the
- 3:58next little while, or at least can show us that
- 4:01we're going to be facing these same problems,
- 4:03that weather patterns can change. Yeah, yeah,
- 4:06the interesting is... Despite what you economically
- 4:08plan for. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And I think the
- 4:12interesting thing about it is, you know, 3 ,400
- 4:15years ago, did they have microplastics in the
- 4:17ocean? Yeah. I actually have quite the backlog
- 4:21of microplastic articles. Yeah. We can get to
- 4:25those when we get to those. Yeah, exactly. So
- 4:28yeah, I just thought it was interesting about
- 4:30how it just slowly progressed. For them, ours
- 4:33seems to be, you know, expanding a little bit
- 4:36more rapidly, but look at what we're doing to
- 4:38the planet. Yeah, it's also kind of crazy for
- 4:41like how long ago it was. It was a really prolonged
- 4:44fall of their civilization. Yeah, I would say.
- 4:47It was a few hundred years, which is kind of
- 4:49surprising. Yeah, how would they mark that? I
- 4:52was like, here's the start of it. The weird one
- 4:54was, and it fell in 3418 BC. Which is like, huh,
- 4:59that's a very specific year. Yeah, no, but that
- 5:03seems as good. Yeah, I don't know. You guys got
- 5:0548 hours and 18 minutes or something like that.
- 5:08I don't know. They seem specific in their numbers,
- 5:11so maybe I can be specific like that. Probably
- 5:13shouldn't because we always put it on a schedule,
- 5:15but I did nonetheless. Anyhow, bye. It sounds
- 5:17made up. Bye.