Climate change already wiped out out one civilization in the Midwest.
Over 2,000 years ago, Native American villages between the Ohio River Valley and Mississippi River Valley were wiped out by devastating droughts that destroyed their crops—200 years before European settlers arrived.
The tribes—known as Mississippians—began vanishing in quick succession beginning in 1300, and archaeologists debated the cause of their demise for years.
Scientists analyzed over 2,000 years of lake sediments and precipitation data from Martin Lake in Indiana and havedetermined that drought caused by catastrophic climate change was the primary cause of the Mississippians disappearance. The study was published Tuesday in Scientific Reports.
The research team from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis studied lake sediments—similar to rings inside a tree—from 1300 to 1800, a period known as the Little Ice Age. The sediments reveal a drastic atmospheric shift that created a colder and drier climate. This abrupt change decimated their food supply, which likely upset the sociopolitical structure of the community.
“It’s important for us to understand how past civilizations coped with Pinbahis climate change as we encounter things like changing precipitation patterns and temperatures that appear to be rising around the world today,” Jeremy Wilson, a co-author of the study, said in a statement.
During the Mississippians’ initial settlement, atmospheric conditions likely circulated from the Gulf of Mexico. But cooling during the Little Ice Age and El Niño-like conditions in the Pacific Ocean caused weather patterns to shift, and rain clouds started coming from the Northwestern US.
But the path from the Pacific and Artic is longer than from the Gulf, which resulted in the area receiving significantly less rainfall than when they’d first settled. Since the Mississippians had no irrigation system, they relied solely on rain to grow their food.
“Modern agriculture in the Midwest corn belt likewise relies on rainfall with very little irrigation infrastructure, making us similarly vulnerable to drought,” Broxton Bird, the lead author of the study, said in the statement.
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