Climate change leads to the collapse of Maya civilization

Scientists using new satellite technology to monitor the South American environment said the decline of Mayan civilization could stem from their own droughts and climate change.

Researchers from the Marshall Aviation Center in Huntsville, Alabama launched the SERVIR satellite program in early 2005 to overcome forest fires, improve land use and study natural disasters. However, the program also discovered traces of agriculture in the Mayan past, now buried by time. These lessons are used to help current humanity face climate change.

According to project developers Tom Sever and Daniel Irwin, SERVIR warns leaders in Central and South America about the possibility of climate change that can cause extreme damage to ecosystems and diversity. biology of this region. If the government really appreciates these warnings, the data collected will be a means to protect life.

Mysterious farms

There are more than a hundred reasons for the Mayan collapse including storms, overpopulation, illness, war and rebellion among farmers. But Sever, the only NASA archaeologist, gives evidence for a new explanation. In the Council for the Advancement of Science meeting held in Boston, Massachusetts earlier this month, Sever said: 'Our recent research shows that climate change may also be a cause .'

A common assumption is that the Mayans cultivated in the form of forest for agriculture, but Sever and his colleagues thought that the method could not help maintain a population of over 60,000 at the height of this civilization.

Researchers believe that the Mayans also exploited additional marshes called bajos, which represent 40% of the Peten area, where the empire settled. In most of the case studies, the Mayan cities surround the bajos so archaeologists think it has no effect. But groundbreaking images taken from satellites point to the drainage canals of ancient bajos and fields that were quite fertile.

The data show that a combination of agriculture in shifting cultivation and swamp swamping has caused local drought and rising temperatures. This may be the source of hypothetical factors that led to the Mayan collapse, even factors that seem unrelated like illness and war.

The bajo satellite image of Guatemala - a large seasonal swamp.The analysis of satellite images shows that the ancient Mayans cultivated these areas and caused droughts that led to the collapse of civilization.Images taken by IKONOS commercial satellites also show yellow spaces in dense forests, possibly ancient Mayan buildings.(Photo: National Geographic)

The success of the satellite program

SERVIR researchers are announcing their hypothesis to the people, giving satellite images of deforestation and fertile lands to villagers and leaders.

Currently, the National Assembly of Guatemala has built the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America, after browsing through satellite images and seeing the difference between their forests and the region. bare north.

SERVIR, supported by USAID and the World Bank, has proven its effectiveness since the program's governing body was set up in Panama under the US Center for Wet Tropics. Latin and Caribbean (CATHALAC).

In 2006, Panama's Prime Minister Martin Torrijos used SERVIR's office as a place to work during widespread flooding, and he paid close attention when SERVIR's technology warned of landslides. In the previous year, Central American governments also consulted SERVIR about predictions of storms Dean and Felix, tropical storm Noel.

The burden of Central American countries

Although the local government has made great efforts in environmental management, Latin American countries are facing the burdens caused by climate change. Sever said, currently, in the area of ​​Petén, it does not rain as expected. Local residents said their chicle plants are producing less fruit and clouds form higher and later areas, sometimes without rain.

Through SERVIR, Sever and its team are investigating the reaction of soil and plants to changing living conditions. They are also building maps for environmental and agricultural ministers of some countries.

Senior CATHALAC scientist Emil Cherrington of Belize is using this information to predict the impact of climate change on his homeland in the future.'Belize is a country suitable for biodiversity conservation.'

Cherrington said that rainfall would be most likely to drop in the mountains and that temperatures would increase most on the coast. SERVIR data predicts that some species of birds and mammals will become extinct, but amphibians will suffer the most. If the projections of satellite rainfall can be brought to farmers, they will decide how much to produce based on the amount of water they need.

SERVIR scientists also hope to expand technology based on aviation into other areas. They are studying the development of air quality indicators for Central America as the standard in US weather reports. And the industry has come up with applications that SERVIR scientists have not yet thought of. A Panama company building solar panels has consulted SERVIR for the best place to capture the sun.

Cherrington said: 'Aviation-based information can help us make better decisions, which is amazing.'