1. What do you think caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization?
2. How could this scenario have been avoided? Does this hold lessons for current environmental management?
Monday, August 27, 2012
Mayan Civilization
1. What do you think caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization?
2. How could this scenario have been avoided? Does this hold lessons for current environmental management?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1) Lack of sufficient resources
ReplyDelete2) Regrow what was depleted and live bellow your means, stockpiling, until the regrowth is complete.
1. I think that the Mayan civilization collapsed for several reasons. First, as mentioned in the article, many city-states were already struggling with peasant revolts, overpopulation, wars, and changing trade routes. All of this unrest would probably have shaken things up significantly even if there had not been a drought. Second, the Mayans weren't technologically developed enough to come up with ways to get water apart from rain fall. Also, they weren't aware (or maybe they were aware but their demise was plotted by an evil Aztec who had infilitrated their government or something) that their agriculutal demands were proving too much for the environment to handle.
ReplyDelete2. Maybe the Mayans could have not cut down as many trees and replaced them with all that corn. They could also have investigated other water-getting ways, aside from turning over soil like it said they did in the article. Maybe if they had been been more innovative and creative in their thinking, they could have found a solution. I think this shows us today that sometimes the answer is right under our noses- we just have to have to have a sneeze of unexpected thinking to propell it into eye-view. Also, in times of drought we should just pull back and let the environment do its thing, instead of jumping in there with tree-cutters and things like that.
1. When they killed trees to make room for their crops, they would have made the soil less stable and less fertile which could eventually slow down crop production. Also, the Mayan civilizations could have collapsed due to their lack of technology. The article explains that there was plenty of water located right below them which they could not access. Even after many droughts, even their reserves of water could have evaporate or been used. By growing corn and other crops, more sunlight was going to the crops rather than the ground which is key to evaporation and therefore rainfall.
ReplyDelete2. To prevent this from happening, the Mayans could have looked into water storage techniques such as bigger reservoirs and even obtaining water from under the surface. Also, a successful way to capture rain water or direct water from rivers would have been extremely helpful. Also, by storing up water and instead of cutting more trees and planting more during times of drought, the Mayans could have let the drought pass over to prolong the inevitable severe drought which lead to their demise.
1. I believe that many factors led to the fall of Mayan civilization (natural weather patterns, revolt, overpopulation, etc.), but they may have caused the severity of the drought through deforestation, which affects weather patterns.
ReplyDelete2. It could have been avoided by understanding the damaging effects of deforestation, overpopulation and wasting resources. They may not have understood the long-term effects of removing trees or their farming practices that were damaging the land. Advancements in technology could have also helped them to conserve water or to find and manipulate other sources of water, but don't get me wrong, the Mayans were still very advanced for their time, relatively speaking. From this we can learn that, even with the knowledge of amazing technology and a better understanding of the effects our actions could be having, knowledge won't prevent history from repeating, action can.
1.) I believe that multiple things caused the downfall of the Mayan civilization, of course there was the obvious, drought spreading quickly over what was their land, that added to the fact that the population was growing so quickly caused the water shortage to be even greater leading to the collapse of the Mayans.
ReplyDelete2.) The downfall of this empire could have been prevented or avoided by conserving and spreading out the wealth, the Mayans were too wasteful with resources, and since the people cut down so many trees, the crops wouldn't be watered by the rain as much, leaving a cycle forever diminishing the supply of natural resources until it was too late. The Mayans should have tried to make advances in technology to preserve resources longer, and they should have understood how unhealthy deforestation is for the environment. These things weren't paid attention to and it overall lead to their collapse.
1. After reading the article, I think that there are a few factors that caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization. The drought that occurred because of their deforestation is an obvious factor. Another is that their society was not advanced enough to access the water underground at the time of the drought, and all of their water sources had been depleted.
ReplyDelete2. I think the scenario could have been avoided. According to the article, all they would have had to do is not cut down trees. Their society could have taken precautions to make sure they had water, and because they grew so fast and had to deforest so quickly to accommodate the population, the civilization collapsed.
1) I think that even though the Mayan city-states were already going downhill because of factors such as overpopulation and conflicts within their society, the lack of water for crops was what really sped the process up of their cities breaking down. To make the drought even worse, the Mayans cut down trees to make room for their crops, such as corn, as well as to provide for their arhcitectural needs. Because of the reflection of the sun off of the crops that the trees would have otherwise absorbed, the remaining moisture was not able to escape the soil and become evaporated and form clouds which would then create rainfall. Their actions acted as a catalyst for the drought and made the conditions even more severe.
ReplyDelete2) I think that one way this dilemma could've been avoided would be to replant trees whenever they cut some down (at least the same amount, if not more, as well as to look into how their actions were affecting the environment and the pros and cons of cutting down the trees, especially when overtaking a challenge as big as cutting down all of the trees that they have. They also should have at leas attempted to look for better ways to find water or store rain water.
1. I believe that the deforestation and the rapid growth of the population led to the extinction on the Mayan civilization, because the deforestation had lead to worse living conditions including more dryness in their cities and causing drought conditions which worsened as the population rose, which led to more deforestation, and is just a cycle that led to their extinction.
ReplyDelete2. It probably could have been avoided if they would expand their civilization; moving around the jungles and making cities around the already growing civilization so as too keep the deforestation at longer distances of other deforestations as to keep it low yet not harming much of their surroundings. Another way would have been to manage the water supply better and find a way to tap into the underwater resevouirs and harness that water.
1. I believe that the overpopulation, deforestation, and drought of the Mayan civilization all worked together to bring about the Mayan's downfall, as well as feeding off of each other to make it even worse. It all goes in a cycle: Because the Mayans overpopulated their civilization, they needed to cut down more trees to keep up with the needs of a bigger population, thus creating the deforestation, cutting down the trees at a faster rate than they could grow. Then because there were no trees left, the sun reflected off the earth rather than absorbing into it, causing less water to evaporate and be able to rain back down, causing the drought which eventually caused the society to collapse.
ReplyDelete2. I think that this scenario could have been avoided if the Mayans had controlled their population. If they had kept it small enough to have enough trees growing that they could cut down the amount they needed with out deforestizing, then there wouldn't have been such a severe drought and they would have most likely been able to pull through until rainfall increased. This is important for current environmental management as a lesson to not try and sustain a larger population than is possible, or try to use beyond the means that can restore itself, or else the same thing will happen to our whole world as happened to the Mayan civilization.
1. What do you think caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization?
ReplyDelete-I believe that the collapse of the Mayan civilization was due to the combined force of several factors, as the article explained, over population, deforestation, and lack of water were all possible and likely contenders for the civilizations downfall. In a separate article that I read, it was explained that quarrying also has negative effects on the environment and inhabitants. In order to obtain the limestone(and other minerals) that were needed to create the pyramids, sediment would have gone into the air and affect peoples oxygen intake and probably hindered crop growth in the immediate vicinity . However, this would have only been for short periods of time.
2. How could this scenario have been avoided? Does this hold lessons for current environmental management?
- I don't believe that this scenario could have been avoided. sites would have needed to expand in order to compensate for the growth in population and at one point or another, the population would have had an intake greater than the environment could provide. There demise was guaranteed, it was just a matter of time. This holds valuable lessons for environmental management in that it is now known that if there is an insufficient amount of food and water, a population will diminish. Now management includes a balance of preservation, and creation, ensuring that the environment will have enough to give in order to survive.
1. The main cause of the Mayan downfall was the drought. However, since deforestation and over development of land exacerbated said drought, the blame can be heavily placed on the Mayans themselves. However, due to the sustained growth of the Mayan empire, it wasn't necessarily an option not to cultivate the amount of farmlands they did.
ReplyDelete2. I honestly don't think that enough information is given to determine if there was a way to prevent this. I would say spacing out farms might help disperse the effects of the drought directly attributed to the Mayans. However, if that were the case, I'm not sure that the farms could then feasibly produce enough crop to reach the demand of the Mayan population. However, this still is able to serve as a warning about over development in modern society. While modern methods make farming less difficult than in the Mayan era, they really can only delay the inevitable consequences more than anything.
1. Many factors seem to have been involved in the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Drought played a role in the collapse which was furthered by the deforestation occurring at the time. The Mayans cleared away forests in turn for cities and crops which made a dry climate even drier. Other contributing factors were overpopulation, changing trade routes, war and peasant revolts. The Mayans needed trees to make a plaster for their architecure, but with the deforestation they did not have as many trees as needed. They could not access the water trapped deep undergroung. All of the combinded forces led to the Mayan civilization simply not having the resources to continue on.
ReplyDelete2. If the Mayans had taken the time to evaluate the environment around them, they could have potentially avoided a downfall. If they had realized that they needed the trees for society, and that planting crops in their place made it harder for rain to accumulate, then they could have been better off. This holds lessons for current environmental management in that what may seem like a good and helpful idea may not always be.
1. I feel that Mayan Civilization collapsed because their society was unsustainable and they reached the point where they no longer had the technology to adapt their surroundings to sustain them. As do all animals, humans have a carrying capacity in any given environment. more than any other species, we have an odd habit of then manipulating that environment to increase the human carrying capacity. The Mayans settled into cities, population density and division of labor led to agriculture, agriculture required irrigation (repurposing natural water sources), and so when that system collapsed, the urbanized civilization couldn't exist, but beyond that, failed catastrophically.
ReplyDelete2. Truthfully, the situation could have been best avoided if they hadn't tried to manipulate nature. Traditional, tribal lifestyles are far less vulnerable to manmade disaster, although potentially less insulated from natural disaster. When man manipulates nature to increase his carrying capacity, a deficit is opened that causes catastrophic cycles when the consequences outrun technology. The natural carrying capacity of an environment is the most sustainable carrying capacity. And the cons are relative to the ability to definitively answer whether technology has made us happier.
In the modern context, we can see the deficit we have created, and its pretty intimidating. We employ technologies without understanding all of their effects, and then employ new ones to compensate for the results. One possible parallel for us is our energy consumption. When we are no longer able to produce the amount of energy we currently consume, how can we prevent a similar collapse? Theoretically, we can't. Such is the problem with being smarter than we are wise.
1. The Mayan Civilization simply collapsed due to a lack of resources. This started with the demand of trees and water as the population grew. The trees were needed for cooking to help create the mix that held together the architectures of the Mayan Civilization. The water was a basic necessity to live and use for irrigation of agriculture. The lack of trees and more production of corn led to a lack of water evaporating because the sun would essentially bounce off the corn stalks. As there was now no new water evaporating a rain shortage became apparent. Soon there simply was not enough water to sustain the urbanized civilization.
ReplyDelete2. The Mayan Civilization catastrophy could have been easily avoided if they were sustainable and were more environmental towards nature. It takes the society to identify the problem and find a alternative solution to fix it. So the Mayan Civilization should have identified there man made disaster and invested in a alternate more sustainable society.
Today, the same message can apply in many ways. The problem needs to be identified, then fixed. A good example of this is clean water, the earth is approximately 71% water, 2.6% of which is clean. A few decades ago this might have not been an issue. However just like the Mayan Civilization the modern world has experienced a huge population growth of over-exceeding 7 billion. The simple fact is clean water is running out and is essential to the human body. Unless water is conserved and alternatives are invested in the modern world could potentially face the same consequences at the Mayan Civilization.
1. The first stage of the collapse began with the suddle signs of over population, war, and the peasant revolts. Due to this chaos, the Mayan civilization didn't figure out a source of water with rainfall due to the severe drought, didn't develop new technology to be sustainable, as well as began the deforestation process with no concept of the change in climnate it would create.
ReplyDelete2. I believe that the scenario could have been avoided if the Mayans would of known the warning signs for a collapse about to occur. Seeing the signs of plants dying or the fact that the society was completely out of control would of helped stop the collapse. What we can learn from the Mayan civiliation is that we need to look to our future and how the actions can affect the environment in a positive or negative way.
1. The Mayan Civilization collapsed because they did not have enough resources . The 2 resources they needed were water and trees. The trees were needed for cooking and The water was a basic necessity to live and use for irrigation of agriculture. The lack of trees and more production of corn led to a lack of water evaporating. Since there was no water cycle happening they soon lost their water and thus their lives.
ReplyDelete2. If the Mayans had known that the water cycle would stop if they grew too much corn they could have stopped it. If they had realized that they needed the trees for society, and if they grew too much corn they would lose their water supply they would have survived. This holds lessons for current environmental management by showing us we must look at rare side effects before making decisions especially when they were not developed yet.
1. I think what caused the collapse of the Mayan Civilization was the loss of nature. By this I mean, the loss of forest and crops. This had a major impact on the Civilization because the people that once lived there couldn’t from the big loss of environment that was essential. For different reasons, such as: making a drying climate, not as much rain, droughts occurring, and so on.
ReplyDelete2.This scenario could have been avoided by not cutting down the forest and getting rid of crops because it could have possibly saved the Mayans living there. Yes, I do believe that this holds lessons for current environmental management because this is a perfect example of what could possibly happen in other areas.
1. I believe that deforestation as well as drought was the cause of the collapse of the Mayan Empire. As the Mayan people would remove trees for expansion of the empire and other necessities, they unknowingly caused the drought to worsen. Due to lack of water there weren't enough crops or enough water for any animals they may have had as well as themselves.
ReplyDelete2. This scenario could have been avoided quite easily. Instead of expanding outwards, the Maya could perhaps expanded upwards. This would conserve the forest yet fulfill the need for expansion. Of course this holds lessons for current environmental management because if the current civilizations are not careful and manage the natural resources in a responsible manner, history will repeat itself.
1. There's many causes to the collapse of the Mayan Civilization, some of the main ones being deforestation, drought, and overpopulation. With the Mayan's cutting more and more trees, they were destroying their food source and basically everything that held their Empire in control. As the deforestation occurred droughts began, making it harder for them to grow crops and even have water to drink. Lastly overpopulation is the main cause of their downfall, with them having to make more space for all the people they began to cut down trees to make more room and eventually causing the drought. Overall the Mayan's creating their own downfall.
ReplyDelete2. I really don't believe that this scenario could have been prevented, I mean the Mayans were smart but they didn't really understand what was going on around them they thought that it was all Gods' doings not that it was them. Also back then there was no way to prevent overpopulation it was just a natural thing they didn't really think as harmful, so they just made more room to fit everyone and so there would be more food, it was their instincts for survival.This does hold a lesson for the issues right now I think that we're going in the same steps as the Mayans making the same mistakes of overpopulation and trying to expand and in the way destroying our natural resources just like they did, but the advantage now is that we know what could happen and we could try to prevent it.
1. No doubt there were many different causes to the collapse of the Mayan civilization, but according to the article, some of the main factors were deforestation and overpopulation, which lead to a shortage of resources, that being water and trees for fuel.
ReplyDelete2. The scenario of cutting down many of the trees seems unavoidable in the Mayan's case. According to the article the Mayans were cutting down trees with more purpose than just making room for more people and planting crops. Even if the Mayans had less babies and a decreased population, they would continue to cut down trees, just slower. As well, if the Mayans had a way to tap underground water resources, trees would still be cut.
1. In my opinion the collapse of the Mayan civilization was caused by multiple occurrences. Because of the decision to eliminate all of the trees covering the island, a drought occurred which resulted in a shortage of food sources, and proper living environments. These factors, along with the large increase in population over time eventually made the once flourishing civilization collapse.
ReplyDelete2.This scenario could have been avoided if the citizens of this civilization had taken more appropriate precautions in preserving their environment. Since they were living in a closed system, their resources were precious to them because they had to produce as much as they were consuming. If they hadn’t gone through with complete deforestation the other problems might not have arisen and they could have continued on as a society. I think this does foreshadow the place we are in in our current environmental situation. We could definitely take this as a lesson to improve the care of our planet and take care of the resources that are so precious to us.
1. I believe that the main cause of the collapse of the Mayan civilization was their deforestation. They didn't realize how essential their forests were to their survival, and so when they got rid of them, they unknowingly were killing themselves. However, other causes were lack of water to use, due to their lack of technology as well as overpopulation.
ReplyDelete2. This scenario could have been avoided if they had taken more time to really understand just how much they needed the resources around them, especially trees, and then figured out a plan to sustain said resources so they would never run out. This definitely does hold lessons for our current life in foreshadowing what could happen if we use up all of our resources such as freshwater or other things. It may seem like we don't need them or we have an abundance, but if we use them up it could kill us off slowly.
1. I think that there were a couple reasons that the Mayan civilization collapsed the way it did. First of as stated within the article the fact that the Mayans deforested much of the land was a big factor in the falling of their civilization. The deforestation caused the climate to rise and cause droughts that in the end killed much of the crops that were necessary to them in order to live. A couple other reasons stated in the article to the falling of the Mayan civilization were overpopulation, changing trade routes, war, and peasant revolts. The way that the cities were built and also the lack of technology that was needed in order to gain access to water were also causes.
ReplyDelete2. The falling of the Mayan civilization could have been avoided if they had not cut down so many of the trees because the climate would not have risen as much as it did. Although the trees were needed to build and cook they could have searched for other ways to continue building and expanding their cities rather than doing it all with the burning of trees. The Mayans could have also developed different methods to access water
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. I think the collapse of the Mayan civilization was mostly because of the deforestation. They also had overpopulation and a lack of water.
ReplyDelete2. Had they found an alternative to the glue stuff they used to build their buildings, they would not have had to cut down all the trees. This is similar to the oil situation in the world today. We will end up using all our resources and have to either create completely renewable energy or natural selection will start to run its course.
The collapse of the mayan civilization was due to overpopulation immensely,because growing cities required deforestration which was the simplest solution to expanding, the major problem that, the article explained,deforestration caused was further drought/climate change. Another contributing factor was the inadvancement of the mayan people, who did not clearly see solutions for their weather changes and did not advance technologically (as in a way to succesfully irrigate crops), nor did the Mayans adapt to their changing climate.
ReplyDeleteThis scenario could have been avoided had the mayans acknowledge the climate change and innovatively thought up solutions for them. This does hold lessons in the environmental management by accurately noting severe or minor climate changes and comparing to other time periods. This gives a lesson in watching and controling deforestration and other factors that might equally cause weather changes.
I believe that Maya collapsed because of a few key reasons. Deforestation was one of the main problems. The Mayans cut down a lot of trees, with the intention of clearing space to grow food. However, ironically, with the trees gone, the soil wan't able to hold water and none of the food could grow well or quickly. The lack of trees also triggered a large drought that might not have been as severe if there had been trees. Overpopulation combined with a lack of food or water drove the civilization to an eventual collapse.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if the Mayans had been more knowledgeful about nature and the consequences of their actions, in addition to having better technology, they would have been able to escape their predicament. I definitely think that this could happen in the US and/or the World, especially if we keep going at the same rate we are right now. It might take a while, but unless we change our sustainability, some sort of collapse is inevitable.
1. The collapse of the Mayan empire was caused by many factors. Not the least of which were peasant revolts, war, over population, changing trade routes, the arrival of the conquistadores and the new diseases they brought with them to which the Mayans were easily susceptible as well as the main topic of the article lack of technological advancement, drought and deforestation which worsened the drought. In order to sustain their growing population the clearing of trees was required to clear up more space for living in as well as farming. With the trees replaced by crops the ground was unable to gather as much energy, as well as susceptible to the rapid loss of nutrients, and released less moisture into the air slowing down the process of rainfall, thus worsening the drought. The Maya were not without a back up plan for water, they had reservoirs and canals but, unfortunately, the use of these is more effective when rainfall is plentiful not during droughts and while the logic behind this system is fine and dandy they lacked the technological advancement, and didn't fathom, drilling into the earth for water. Anyways, as the drought worsened the Mayas supplies dwindled and it became practically impossible sustain their growing civilization at which point their numbers began to decrease and the surviving population eventually became weak and unable to fend off the conquistadores and their diseases.
ReplyDelete2. Theoretically this scenario could have been avoided had the Mayas realized the destruction they were causing to themselves and refrained from cutting down trees in order to expand allowing for the situation to recuperate itself or planted more trees elsewhere to promote rainfall or had they had the idea to dig for water or even had a random Maya just decide to dig a really deep hole one day and discovered that there was water stored beneath the surface. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely that they would have thought to do any of these things because the thought it was the rain god who controlled rainfall and by their logic the way to end the drought was to build more temples to the rain god in order to sacrifice more offerings to this god thus resulting in the decimation of even more trees. Yes the Mayans situation does hold many lessons for current environmental management. lessons about forest management, efficient water storage, advancing technologies, ad just plain thinking out of the box for new solutions. History is teeming with examples of mistakes we've made that had a theoretical solution that could very possibly have been applied. And if we are any bit as intelligent as we think we are we will look back on our history and learn from our mistakes, we must learn to manage our environment and our resources and not over whelm it in order to support our ever growing population. Otherwise the demise of modern civilization as we know it is inevitable.
1. I believe that the Mayan civilization collapsed primarilay because of a large population spike. This, in turn, led to deforestation and improper use of goods. All of which eventually led to the fall of the civilization.
ReplyDelete2. The Maya could have easily avoided the downfall of their civilization with nothing more than a little foresight. Had they thought ahead and planned how they wanted to use the resources available to them, they would have been able to ration their goods, and not destroy their environment, as well as themselves. The situation in which the Maya found themselves is clearly quite similar to the situation in which the whole world finds itself now. And, as with the Maya, we need only think ahead clearly and plan properly for our future in order to survive.
1. Global warming caused by an increase in solar radiation coupled with a slight shift of the Earth's orbit caused a large increase in rainfall (an estimated 40% increase!). This abrupt change turned what once was a vast desert into a lush savanna-type landscape. Because of new lakes that formed, people populated the area (The Ténéré) and formed nomadic fishing tribes.
ReplyDelete2. If the Sahara were to stay green, and the fishing tribes were able to continue to exists, developing into modern society, North Africa would be drastically different. The people living in the North would be able to hone their skills, and it is likely that more people in the south would move north for better opportunities and work. Having a fishing business would make Africa a more successful continent, possibly reducing the number of third-world countries and increasing average standards of living. However, it is also possible that Africa could be exploited for its resources.