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Study Suggests Climate Change-Induced Drought Caused the Mayan Collapse

Posted by timothy on from the what-if-they-just-wanted-to-wane? dept.

pigrabbitbear writes "The collapse of the Mayan empire has already caused plenty of consternation for scientists and average Joes alike, and we haven't even made it a quarter of the way through 2012 yet. But here's something to add a little more fuel to the fire: A new study suggests that climate change killed off the Mayans."

3 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Source? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I hate when people cite academic papers and don't provide a link to it...

    http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6071/956.full

  2. Re:Advanced as They Were by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Informative

    The theory still stands, what was debunked is the theory that peak oil means running out.

    Peak oil never meant running out. Right from the coining of the term in the 1950s by Hubbert, it was always about peak of oil production, not the end of oil.

  3. Re:Advanced as They Were by chrb · · Score: 5, Informative

    oil has many substitutes, since we have centuries of fossil fuel supply, there will not be peak of fossil fuel.

    Fossil fuels are a finite resource. There is no way there can not be a peak. Hubbert "concluded that no finite resource could sustain exponential growth. At some point, the rate of extraction will have to peak and then decline until the resource is exhausted."

    Many countries have already experienced fossil fuel production peaks. The UK hit peak coal in 1913. Since then, production has fallen from 287m tons to 15m tons today. The same thing will eventually happen to China and all of the other coal producing nations. Fossil fuels are a finite resource; there are no new fossil fuels.