Long-term climate phenomena like the one that triggered the Dust Bowl have happened throughout history, sometimes toppling entire civilizations. That ability can give developed nations time to mitigate the effects of a potential climate catastrophe, a University of Washington climatologist said Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was among six scientists addressing the organization's symposium on the Frontiers of the Physical Sciences. There are indications that decadal climate variability has been a constant feature of Earth's environment but happens so slowly that humans are only dimly aware of it, Sarachik said.
Research shows the world has long been subject to prolonged climate cycles.
For instance, the Dust Bowl that plagued North America's Great Plains in the 1930s, devastating the nation's breadbasket and driving thousands of people from their farms, paled in comparison to severe and longer droughts in the same region before A.D. 1200. Long-term drought also is believed to have been significant in the collapse of the Mayan culture of Central America between 750 and 900. Evidence of climate events long past has helped in understanding cycles that can span years or even decades, Sarachik said. Underdeveloped nations could be severely crippled with just one bad year of drought or flooding. Developed nations such as the United States can withstand one or two years of severe conditions, but long-term effects such as the Dust Bowl could cause havoc in what has become the breadbasket of the world, Sarachik said.