The Well is already Dry..
Earth History:
Many scientists and archeologists believe that the earth is 4.5 billion years of age, based on evidence from radiometric age dating or meteorite materials as well as the oldest-known lunar and terrestrial samples. Now over the span of all these years the climate of the earth , of course, have been changing constantly and to our knowledge these changes happened over very long periods of time that later were referred to as era’s or ages. However, the current hot topic of “global warming” and “climate change” debates whether we, humans, are causing this current global warming, thus affecting climate change around the globe.
Natural history tells us that there were lots of ice ages and warm periods that the earth went through, changing the geological features known at that time. Some happened suddenly, caused by sudden volcanic eruptions and devastating earthquakes.. But mostly some of them have happened over a long period of time.
But, for those who look closely and dig deeply in civilizations’ history and archeological findings, they will find that maybe there is more to it that we don’t quite understand.
Ancient Civilizations:
By the end of the “Golden Age” of the “Old Kingdom” of Ancient Egypt (2686 BC – 2181 BC) the King Pepi II, was the ruling Pharaoh at that time. History, based on archeological evidences including Pepi’s own tomb, shows that after Pepi II, there was nothing. Literally. There were no signs or tomb drawings, no inscriptions or anything to tell that someone else succeeded him. Of course, this was marked as the first Dark Age of Egyptian history or as archeologists like to refer to it as the “First Intermediate Period”. This period was plagued with civil wars, famine, diseases and disunity across all Egypt. It is said that what caused it was a major drought in the Nile. At that time, there were no dams or other techniques to hold and reserve water, so if the main source of water disappears, the whole agricultural society will be doomed, thus the whole nation will starve to death. Now, just to make you understand how severe this would be. During the Old Kingdom times, and later eras of Egyptian history as well, the Pharaoh was considered a deity, a God, so to speak. And within his power, is everything.. Including the flow of the Nile and distributing of earth’s gifts to people. Now imagine what would happen if the people found out that they were fooled and the Pharaoh controls nothing! What would happen? An uprising that will turn the whole nation into turmoil. And that what happens after Pepi II time. A chaos that brought down the greatest and most advanced nation on earth, to the ground. Thus explaining the absence of any evidences or archeological findings related to the era of after Pepi the second. Not for a long while at least.
About the same period, another great Nation was ruling nearby, The Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia. And their fate was no different. Their country faced a similar drought that brought them to ruins. Similar to what was found in the archeological layers of mud, clay and sand discovered in the Nile, archeological findings in the Akkadian city of “Tel Leilan” shows the same findings. There was a layer of windblown sand among the layers beneath it. That means the same thing; the river there also dried up, and stayed like that for at least a hundred years.
And to cover the whole picture, the biggest desert known to man, the Sahara Desert in North Africa, was really not a desert. It was actually a vast rich area of forests and green lands, but it gradually dried up, cornering the cities closer to their rivers and seas till the great drought happened. A period which is referred to in history as the “4.2 Kiloyear Event” which started in 2200 BC and lasted for the entire 22nd Century BC.
The Question?
Now, my question is: whether this is enough evidence that Global Warming or Climate Change is not really a man-made event..? Is it a natural cycle of planet Earth? Are the current so frequent natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis and so forth, are they just the shaking of the earth declaring the beginning of a new era? Did we cause it? Or is it inevitable? To be frank, neither science nor history can tell us for sure. There is no definite answer. Everything is still debatable within the halls of the scientific community.
But one thing I know for sure, is that we harm the planet unnecessarily if we are consuming more than what we need. If we are polluting the earth by dumping toxic wastes and God knows what into its oceans and rivers. We can harm our surrounding environment more than we think we can. I mean, do we really need a disaster to behave right? Do we need a tragic blow to keep our environment safe?
What we need is a cultural shift in the way we interact with nature. I don't think we're going to save anything if we go around talking about saving plants and animals only; we've got to translate that into actions that truly reflects positively on the future of the planet. Modern technology and the industrial wheel really owe ecology an apology. I’ll end this with a quote from Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia (a collection of proverbs and adages published in 1732). “We never know the worth of water, till the well is dry”.
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