Article published on Corriere.it
Climate change may have been among the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire. These are the conclusions of a study conducted by researchers at the " Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape ," which reconstructed the history of climate change in European summers of the last 2,500 years.
Analysing the growth rings of 9 thousand artifacts and samples of semi-fossilized tree, living in Germany, France, Italy and Austria, scientists have discovered that the patterns climatici potevano essere collegati ad eventi storici dalle conseguenze devastanti. Si è visto, infatti, che i periodi caldi e umidi (indicati dagli anelli di crescita più ampi) erano coincisi con un’epoca di prosperità, mentre, per contro, un clima secco o comunque mutevole (cerchi più stretti) si era accompagnato a sconvolgimenti politici, come la caduta dell’Impero Romano e la Guerra dei Trent’Anni.
«Guardando agli ultimi 2.500 anni, ci sono svariati esempi di come il cambiamento climatico abbia influenzato la storia dell’umanità – ha spiegato Ulf Buntgen, co-autore della ricerca, al sito della rivista “Science”, taken from the "Daily Telegraph" -. Not surprisingly, the warm and wet period characterized the prosperity of the Roman and medieval, while an increase in climate variability by CEO 250-600 coincided with the end of the Roman Empire and the turbulence of ' period of migration. Just think about the drought of the third century was accompanied by a parallel crisis of the Roman Empire, marked by the barbarian invasions, the political turmoil and economic consequences in several provinces of Gaul. "
According to the expert, the results achieved by the study could help to establish future climate models and serve as a warning on the impact that climate change can have in society. "We are very interested in understanding the civilizations of the past and make our research more substantial - he concluded Buntgen - and there is also ample room for improvement to obtain higher quality data and on a larger time scale."
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