Russian scientists promise that in 2014 the world will begin ice age. Vladimir Bashkin, head of the Gazprom VNIIGAZ laboratory, and Rauf Galiullin, an employee of the Institute of Fundamental Problems of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, argue that there will be no global warming. According to scientists, warm winters– a consequence of the cyclical activity of the sun and cyclical climate change. This warming has continued from the 18th century to the present, and from next year the Earth will begin to cool again.
The Little Ice Age will come gradually and will last at least two centuries. The temperature decline will reach its peak by the middle of the 21st century.
At the same time, scientists say that the anthropogenic factor - human influence on the environment - does not play such a role in climate change big role, as is commonly thought. It’s a matter of marketing, Bashkin and Galiullin believe, and the promise of cold weather every year is just a way to increase the price of fuel.
Pandora's Box - The Little Ice Age in the 21st century.
In the next 20-50 years we are threatened with a Little Ice Age, because it has happened before and should come again. Researchers believe that the onset of the Little Ice Age was associated with a slowdown in the Gulf Stream around 1300. In the 1310s, Western Europe, judging by the chronicles, experienced a real environmental disaster. According to the French Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, the traditionally warm summer of 1311 was followed by four gloomy and rainy summers of 1312-1315. Heavy rains and unusually harsh winters led to the loss of several crops and freezing orchards in England, Scotland, northern France and Germany. In Scotland and northern Germany, viticulture and wine production ceased. Winter frosts began to affect even northern Italy. F. Petrarch and G. Boccaccio recorded that in the 14th century. snow often fell in Italy. A direct consequence of the first phase of the MLP was the massive famine of the first half of the 14th century. Indirect - the crisis of the feudal economy, the resumption of corvée and major peasant uprisings in Western Europe. In the Russian lands, the first phase of the MLP made itself felt in the form of a series of “rainy years” in the 14th century.
From about the 1370s, temperatures in Western Europe began to slowly rise, and widespread famine and crop failures ceased. However, cold, rainy summers were common throughout the 15th century. In winter, snowfalls and frosts were often observed in southern Europe. Relative warming began only in the 1440s, and it immediately led to the rise agriculture. However, the temperatures of the previous climatic optimum were not restored. For Western and Central Europe, snowy winters became common, and the period of “golden autumn” began in September.
What influences the climate so much? It turns out the sun! Back in the 18th century, when sufficiently powerful telescopes appeared, astronomers noticed that the number of sunspots increases and decreases with a certain periodicity. This phenomenon was called solar activity cycles. They also found out their average duration - 11 years (Schwabe-Wolf cycle). Later, longer cycles were discovered: 22-year cycle (Hale cycle), associated with a change in the polarity of the solar magnetic field, the “secular” Gleissberg cycle lasting about 80-90 years, as well as the 200-year (Suess cycle). It is believed that there is even a cycle lasting 2400 years.
“The fact is that longer cycles, for example secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the emergence of grandiose minima,” said Yuri Nagovitsyn. Modern science knows several of these: the Wolf minimum (early 14th century), Sperer minimum (second half of the 15th century) and Maunder minimum (second half of the 17th century).
Scientists have suggested that the end of the 23rd cycle most likely coincides with the end of the secular cycle of solar activity, the maximum of which was in 1957. This, in particular, is evidenced by the curve of relative Wolf numbers, which has approached the minimum level in recent years. Indirect evidence of superposition is the procrastination of the 11-year-old. Having compared the facts, scientists realized that, apparently, a combination of factors indicates an approaching grandiose minimum. Therefore, if in the 23rd cycle the solar activity was about 120 relative Wolf numbers, then in the next it should be about 90-100 units, astrophysicists suggest. Further activity will decrease even more.
The fact is that longer cycles, for example secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the emergence of grandiose minima, the last of which occurred in the 14th century. What consequences await the Earth? It turns out that it was during the grandiose maxima and minima of solar activity that large temperature anomalies were observed on Earth.
Climate is a very complex thing, it is very difficult to trace all its changes, especially on a global scale, but as scientists suggest, the greenhouse gases brought by human activity slightly slowed down the advent of the Little Ice Age, and besides, the world ocean, having accumulated some of the heat over the past decades, also delays the process the beginning of the Little Ice Age, giving up its warmth a little at a time. As it turned out later, the vegetation on our planet absorbs excess carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) well. The main influence on the climate of our planet is still exerted by the Sun, and we cannot do anything about it.
Nothing catastrophic, of course, will happen, but part of the northern regions of Russia may become completely unsuitable for life, and oil production in the north of the Russian Federation may cease altogether.
In my opinion, the start of a decline in global temperatures can already be expected in 2014-2015. In 2035-2045, solar luminosity will reach a minimum, and after this, with a lag of 15-20 years, another climate minimum will occur - a deep cooling of the Earth's climate.
News about the end of the world » The Earth is facing a new ice age.
Scientists predict a decrease in solar activity that may occur over the next 10 years. The consequence of this could be a repetition of the so-called “Little Ice Age” that happened in the 17th century, writes the Times.
Scientists predict that the frequency of sunspots may decrease significantly in the coming years.
The cycle of formation of new sunspots that influence the Earth's temperature is 11 years. However, employees of the American National Observatory suggest that the next cycle may be very late or may not happen at all. According to the most optimistic forecasts, they say, the new cycle could begin in 2020-21.
Scientists are wondering whether changes in solar activity will lead to a second "Maunder Minimum" - a period of sharp decline in solar activity that lasted 70 years, from 1645 to 1715. During this time, also known as the "Little Ice Age", the River Thames was covered with almost 30 meters of ice, on which horse-drawn carriages successfully traveled from Whitehall to London Bridge.
According to researchers, the decline in solar activity could lead to an average global temperature drop of 0.5 degrees. However, most scientists are confident that it is too early to sound the alarm. During the “Little Ice Age” in the 17th century, the air temperature dropped noticeably only in northwestern Europe, and even then by only 4 degrees. Throughout the rest of the planet, temperatures dropped by just half a degree.
The Second Coming of the Little Ice Age
IN historical time Europe has already experienced a long-term anomalous cold spell once.
Abnormally severe frosts, which reigned in Europe at the end of January, almost led to a full-scale collapse in many Western countries. Due to heavy snowfalls, many highways were blocked, power supplies were interrupted, and aircraft reception at airports was canceled. Due to frosts (in the Czech Republic, for example, reaching -39 degrees), classes in schools, exhibitions and sports matches are canceled. In the first 10 days of extreme frosts in Europe alone, more than 600 people died from them.
For the first time in many years, the Danube froze from the Black Sea to Vienna (the ice there reaches 15 cm thick), blocking hundreds of ships. To prevent the Seine from freezing in Paris, an icebreaker that had been idle for a long time was launched. Ice has frozen the canals of Venice and the Netherlands; in Amsterdam, skaters and cyclists ride along its frozen waterways.
The situation for modern Europe is extraordinary. However, by looking at famous works of European art from the 16th to 18th centuries or in the weather records of those years, we learn that the freezing of canals in the Netherlands, the Venetian lagoon or the Seine was a fairly common occurrence for that time. The end of the 18th century was especially extreme.
Thus, the year 1788 was remembered by Russia and Ukraine as the “great winter,” accompanied throughout their European part by “extreme cold, storms and snow.” In Western Europe in December of the same year, a record temperature of -37 degrees was recorded. The birds froze in flight. The Venetian lagoon froze, and the townspeople skated along its entire length. In 1795, ice bound the coast of the Netherlands with such force that an entire military squadron was captured in it, which was then surrounded by a French cavalry squadron across the ice from land. In Paris that year, frosts reached -23 degrees.
Paleoclimatologists (historians who study climate change) call the period from the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century the “Little Ice Age” (A.S. Monin, Yu.A. Shishkov “Climate History.” Leningrad, 1979) or the “Little Ice Age” era" (E. Le Roy Ladurie, "History of climate since 1000." Leningrad, 1971). They note that during that period there were not isolated cold winters, but a general decrease in temperature on Earth.
Le Roy Ladurie analyzed data on the expansion of glaciers in the Alps and Carpathians. He points to the following fact: the gold mines in the High Tatras, developed in the mid-15th century, were covered with ice 20 m thick in 1570; in the 18th century, the ice thickness there was already 100 m. By 1875, despite the widespread retreat that took place throughout the 19th century and the melting of glaciers, the thickness of the glacier above the medieval mines in the High Tatras was still 40 m. At the same time, as the French paleoclimatologist notes, the advance of glaciers began in the French Alps. In the commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, in the Savoy mountains, "the advance of glaciers definitely began in 1570–1580."
Le Roy Ladurie points out similar examples with exact dates in other places in the Alps. In Switzerland, by 1588 there is evidence of the expansion of a glacier in the Swiss Grindenwald, and in 1589 a glacier descending from the mountains blocked the valley of the Saas River. In the Pennine Alps (in Italy near the border with Switzerland and France) a noticeable expansion of glaciers was also noted in 1594–1595. “In the eastern Alps (Tirol and others), glaciers advance equally and simultaneously. The first information about this dates back to 1595, writes Le Roy Ladurie. And he adds: “In 1599–1600, the curve of glacial development reached its peak for the entire Alpine region.” Since that time, written sources contain endless complaints from residents of mountain villages that glaciers are burying their pastures, fields and houses, thus erasing entire settlements. In the 17th century, the expansion of glaciers continued.
The expansion of glaciers in Iceland, starting from late XVI century and throughout the 17th century advancing on populated areas. As a result, Le Roy Ladurie states, “Scandinavian glaciers, synchronously with Alpine glaciers and glaciers in other parts of the world, have experienced their first, well-defined historical maximum since 1695,” and “in subsequent years they will begin to advance again.” This continued until the middle of the 18th century.
The thickness of the glaciers of those centuries can truly be called historical. The graph of changes in the thickness of glaciers in Iceland and Norway over the past 10 thousand years, published in the book “Climate History” by Andrei Monin and Yuri Shishkov, clearly shows how the thickness of glaciers, which began to grow around 1600, by 1750 reached the level at which the glaciers remained in Europe in the period 8–5 thousand years BC.
Is it any wonder that contemporaries have recorded, since the 1560s in Europe, extraordinary cold winters, which were accompanied by the freezing of large rivers and reservoirs, over and over again? These cases are indicated, for example, in the book by Evgeny Borisenkov and Vasily Pasetsky “The Thousand-Year Chronicle of Unusual Natural Phenomena” (M., 1988). In December 1564, the powerful Scheldt in the Netherlands completely froze and remained under ice until the end of the first week of January 1565. Same cold winter repeated in 1594/95, when the Scheldt and Rhine froze. The seas and straits froze: in 1580 and 1658 - the Baltic Sea, in 1620/21 - the Black Sea and the Bosporus Strait, in 1659 - the Great Belt Strait between the Baltic and North Seas (the minimum width of which is 3.7 km).
The end of the 17th century, when, according to Le Roy Ladurie, the thickness of glaciers in Europe reached a historical maximum, was marked by crop failures due to prolonged severe frosts. As noted in the book by Borisenkov and Pasetsky: “The years 1692–1699 were marked in Western Europe by continuous crop failures and famines.”
One of the worst winters of the Little Ice Age occurred in January–February 1709. Reading the description of those historical events, you involuntarily try them on for modern ones: “From an extraordinary cold, the likes of which neither grandfathers nor great-grandfathers could remember... the inhabitants of Russia and Western Europe. Birds, flying through the air, froze. In Europe as a whole, many thousands of people, animals and trees died. In the vicinity of Venice, the Adriatic Sea is covered standing ice. The coastal waters of England are covered in ice. The Seine and Thames are frozen. The ice on the Meuse River reached 1.5 m. The frosts were equally great in the eastern part of North America.” The winters of 1739/40, 1787/88 and 1788/89 were no less severe.
In the 19th century, the Little Ice Age gave way to warming and harsh winters became a thing of the past. Is he returning now?
The last ice age led to the appearance of the woolly mammoth and a huge increase in the area of glaciers. But it was only one of many that cooled the Earth throughout its 4.5 billion years of history.
So, how often does the planet experience ice ages and when should we expect the next one?
Major periods of glaciation in the history of the planet
The answer to the first question depends on whether you are talking about large glaciations or small ones that occur during these long periods. Throughout history, the Earth has experienced five major periods of glaciation, some of which lasted for hundreds of millions of years. In fact, even now the Earth is experiencing a large period of glaciation, and this explains why it has polar ice caps.
The five main ice ages are the Huronian (2.4–2.1 billion years ago), the Cryogenian glaciation (720–635 million years ago), the Andean-Saharan glaciation (450–420 million years ago), and the Late Paleozoic glaciation (335–260 million years ago). million years ago) and Quaternary (2.7 million years ago to the present). 
These major periods of glaciation may alternate between smaller ice ages and warm periods (interglacials). At the beginning of the Quaternary glaciation (2.7-1 million years ago), these cold ice ages occurred every 41 thousand years. However, significant ice ages have occurred less frequently over the past 800,000 years—about every 100,000 years.
How does the 100,000 year cycle work?
The ice sheets grow for about 90 thousand years and then begin to melt during the 10 thousand year warm period. Then the process is repeated.
Given that the last ice age ended about 11,700 years ago, perhaps it's time for another one to begin?
Scientists believe we should be experiencing another ice age right now. However, there are two factors associated with the Earth's orbit that influence the formation of warm and cold periods. Considering also how much carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere, the next ice age won't start for at least 100,000 years.
What causes an ice age?
The hypothesis put forward by Serbian astronomer Milutin Milanković explains why cycles of glacial and interglacial periods exist on Earth.
As a planet orbits the Sun, the amount of light it receives from it is affected by three factors: its inclination (which ranges from 24.5 to 22.1 degrees on a 41,000-year cycle), its eccentricity (the change in the shape of its orbit around of the Sun, which fluctuates from a near circle to an oval shape) and its wobble (one full wobble occurs every 19-23 thousand years).
In 1976, a landmark paper in the journal Science presented evidence that these three orbital parameters explained the planet's glacial cycles.
Milankovitch's theory is that orbital cycles are predictable and very consistent in the history of the planet. If the Earth is experiencing an ice age, it will be covered with more or less ice, depending on these orbital cycles. But if the Earth is too warm, no change will occur, at least in terms of increasing amounts of ice.
What can affect the warming of the planet?
The first gas that comes to mind is carbon dioxide. Over the past 800 thousand years, carbon dioxide levels have ranged from 170 to 280 parts per million (meaning that out of 1 million air molecules, 280 are carbon dioxide molecules). A seemingly insignificant difference of 100 parts per million results in glacial and interglacial periods. But carbon dioxide levels are significantly higher today than in past periods of fluctuation. In May 2016, carbon dioxide levels over Antarctica reached 400 parts per million.
The Earth has warmed up this much before. For example, during the time of dinosaurs, the air temperature was even higher than it is now. But the problem is that in modern world it is growing at a record pace because we have released too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a short time. Moreover, given that the rate of emissions is not decreasing to date, we can conclude that the situation is unlikely to change in the near future.
Consequences of warming
The warming caused by this carbon dioxide will have big consequences because even a small increase in the Earth's average temperature can lead to dramatic changes. For example, the Earth was on average only 5 degrees Celsius colder during the last ice age than it is today, but this led to a significant change in regional temperatures, the disappearance of huge parts of flora and fauna, and the emergence of new species.
If global warming causes all the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica to melt, sea levels will rise by 60 meters compared to today's levels.
What causes major ice ages?
The factors that caused long periods of glaciation, such as the Quaternary, are not as well understood by scientists. But one idea is that a massive drop in carbon dioxide levels could lead to colder temperatures. 
For example, according to the uplift and weathering hypothesis, when plate tectonics causes mountain ranges to grow, new exposed rock appears on the surface. It easily weathers and disintegrates when it ends up in the oceans. Marine organisms use these rocks to create their shells. Over time, stones and shells take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its level drops significantly, which leads to a period of glaciation.
Previously, scientists had been predicting for decades imminent attack on Earth due to global warming due to human industrial activity and they assured that “there will be no winter.” Today, it seems, the situation has changed dramatically. Some scientists believe that a new ice age is beginning on Earth.
This sensational theory belongs to an oceanologist from Japan, Mototake Nakamura. According to him, starting from 2015, cooling will begin on Earth. His point of view is also supported by a Russian scientist, Khababullo Abdusammatov from the Pulkovo Observatory. Let us recall that the last decade was the warmest for the entire period of meteorological observations, i.e. since 1850.
Scientists believe that already in 2015 there will be a decrease in solar activity, which will lead to climate change and cooling. Ocean temperatures will decrease, ice will increase, and overall temperatures will drop significantly.
The cooling will reach its maximum in 2055. From this moment on, a new ice age will begin, which will last 2 centuries. Scientists have not specified how severe the icing will be.
There is a positive aspect to all this; polar bears no longer seem to be in danger of extinction)
Let's try to figure it all out.
1 Ice Ages can last hundreds of millions of years. The climate at this time is colder, continental glaciers form.
For example:
Paleozoic Ice Age - 460-230 million years ago
Cenozoic Ice Age - 65 million years ago - present.
It turns out that in the period between: 230 million years ago and 65 million years ago, it was much warmer than now, and Today we live in the Cenozoic Ice Age. Well, we've sorted out the eras.
2 Temperature during the Ice Age is not uniform, but also changes. Within the Ice Age, ice ages can be distinguished.
Ice age(from Wikipedia) - a periodically repeating stage in the geological history of the Earth lasting several million years, during which, against the background of a general relative cooling of the climate, repeated sharp growths of continental ice sheets occur - ice ages. These epochs, in turn, alternate with relative warmings - epochs of reduced glaciation (interglacials).
Those. we get a nesting doll, and within the cold ice age, there are even colder periods when the glacier covers the continents on top - ice ages.
We live in the Quaternary Ice Age. But thank God during the interglacial period.
The last ice age (Vistula Glaciation) began ca. 110 thousand years ago and ended around 9700-9600 BC. e. And this is not so long ago! 26-20 thousand years ago the volume of ice was at its maximum. Therefore, in principle, there will definitely be another glaciation, the only question is when exactly.
Map of the Earth 18 thousand years ago. As you can see, the glacier covered Scandinavia, Great Britain and Canada. Note also the fact that the sea level has dropped, and many parts of the earth's surface that are now under water have risen from the water.
The same map, only for Russia.
Perhaps the scientists are right, and we will be able to observe with our own eyes how new lands emerge from under the water, and the glacier takes over the northern territories.
If you think about it, the weather has been pretty stormy lately. Snow fell in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Israel for the first time in 120 years. There was snow even in tropical Vietnam. In the United States for the first time in 100 years, temperatures dropped to a record -50 degrees Celsius. And all this against the backdrop of above-zero temperatures in Moscow.
The main thing is to be well prepared for the Ice Age. Buy a plot of land in the southern latitudes, away from big cities (they are always full of hungry people during natural disasters). Make an underground bunker there with food supplies for years, buy weapons for self-defense and prepare for life in the style of Survival horror))
A miniature ice age may begin on Earth, scientists warn. A new study has found that between 2020 and 2030, solar cycles could cancel each other out, leading to a phenomenon known as the Maunder Minimum. What is it? But the main thing is how to prevent this?
A new model of solar activity that scientists have developed shows a violation of the 11-year cyclicity. It describes special effects in two layers of the Sun, due to which this star will not be able to heat us for some time in the same way as it has done for the last hundreds of years. Experts say solar activity will decline by 60 percent by 2030, leading to a Little Ice Age. The results of the study were presented at a meeting of astronomers in Wales.
Researchers say that in solar cycle 26, which falls between 2020 and 2030, the Sun's two waves cancel each other out. As a result of their destructive interaction, there will be a significant decrease in solar activity (that is, it will become noticeably colder on Earth) and a new Maunder Minimum will occur.
The Maunder Minimum is a phenomenon of long-term decline in the number of sunspots, which already occurred from 1645 to 1715. Then even the River Thames in London froze! The waves can be in phase and increase the activity of the Sun, or, conversely, be out of phase and reduce solar activity to a minimum: in the latter case, the Little Ice Age begins.
Global warming will cause an ice age
Melting glaciers in Antarctica, 2019
Now this seems strange, because we all see how hot it is now in Europe. And the area of the Antarctic sea ice at the beginning of this year, it dropped to 5.5 million square kilometers, which is the minimum for almost 40 years of observation. But what worries experts most is the rate at which ocean temperatures are rising. As the ocean's absorption capacity decreases, heat begins to accumulate in the atmosphere. And this leads to a disruption of the Earth’s thermal balance.
How will global warming cause an ice age? Due to the rapid melting of glaciers, the circulation of warm currents will be disrupted. After this, the temperature in Europe North America and will drop noticeably throughout the world: disruption of the circulation of warm currents will make it impossible to move heat from the equator to Europe and North America. But the worst thing will happen if the Gulf Stream, the main warm current that forms the warm climate in European countries, stops completely. As strange as it may sound, global warming will subsequently lead to cooling.
How to prevent an ice age
In fact, little depends on the person. Even if emissions are reduced harmful substances into the atmosphere, we cannot influence the processes that occur in the Sun. And if you try to stop warming, solar activity will sooner or later drop. If scientists have identified a violation of the 11-year cyclicity, then it exists. Another question is whether everything will really be as bad as they say? So far no one is willing to talk about it.
How to survive the Ice Age
At one time, Neanderthals managed to survive the harsh Ice Age. Why are we worse? In their case, due to active hunting and the risk of running into predators, injuries were an integral part of life. If they had neglected the wounded and treated them as an unnecessary burden, they simply would not have survived. As a rule, Neanderthals stayed in groups, and the loss of even one member was considered a disaster. Simply put, we survived by caring for each other.
Modern humanity is unlikely to limit itself to one concern - after all, we have much more technology at our disposal. What would you do if there was an ice age? Share
The last ice age ended 12,000 years ago. During the most severe period, glaciation threatened man with extinction. However, after the glacier disappeared, he not only survived, but also created a civilization.
Glaciers in the history of the Earth
The last glacial era in the history of the Earth is the Cenozoic. It began 65 million years ago and continues to this day. To modern man lucky: he lives in the interglacial period, one of the warmest periods of the planet's life. The most severe glacial era - the Late Proterozoic - is far behind.
Despite global warming, scientists predict the onset of a new ice age. And if the real one will come only after millennia, then the little ice age, which will reduce annual temperatures by 2-3 degrees, may come quite soon.
The glacier became a real test for man, forcing him to invent means for his survival.
Last Ice Age
The Würm or Vistula glaciation began approximately 110,000 years ago and ended in the tenth millennium BC. The peak of cold weather occurred 26-20 thousand years ago, the final stage of the Stone Age, when the glacier was at its largest.
Little Ice Ages
Even after the glaciers melted, history has known periods of noticeable cooling and warming. Or, in another way - climate pessimums And optimums. Pessimums are sometimes called Little Ice Ages. In the XIV-XIX centuries, for example, the Little Ice Age began, and during the Great Migration of Nations there was an early medieval pessimum.
Hunting and meat food
There is an opinion according to which the human ancestor was more of a scavenger, since he could not spontaneously occupy a higher ecological niche. And all known tools were used to cut up the remains of animals that were taken from predators. However, the question of when and why people began to hunt is still a matter of debate.
In any case, thanks to hunting and meat food, ancient man received a large supply of energy, which allowed him to better endure the cold. The skins of killed animals were used as clothing, shoes and walls of the home, which increased the chances of survival in the harsh climate.
Upright walking
Upright walking appeared millions of years ago, and its role was much more important than in the life of a modern office worker. Having freed his hands, a person could engage in intensive housing construction, clothing production, processing of tools, and the production and preservation of fire. The upright ancestors moved freely in open areas, and their life no longer depended on collecting the fruits of tropical trees. Already millions of years ago, they moved freely over long distances and obtained food in river drains.
Upright walking played an insidious role, but it still became more of an advantage. Yes, man himself came to cold regions and adapted to life in them, but at the same time he could find both artificial and natural shelters from the glacier.
Fire
Fire in the life of ancient man was initially an unpleasant surprise, not a blessing. Despite this, the human ancestor first learned to “extinguish” it, and only later use it for his own purposes. Traces of the use of fire are found in sites that are 1.5 million years old. This made it possible to improve nutrition by preparing protein foods, as well as to remain active at night. This further increased the time to create survival conditions.
Climate
The Cenozoic Ice Age was not a continuous glaciation. Every 40 thousand years, human ancestors had the right to a “respite” - temporary thaws. At this time, the glacier was retreating and the climate became milder. During periods of harsh climate, natural shelters were caves or regions rich in flora and fauna. For example, the south of France and the Iberian Peninsula were home to many early cultures.
The Persian Gulf 20,000 years ago was a river valley rich in forests and grassy vegetation, a truly “antediluvian” landscape. Wide rivers flowed here, one and a half times larger in size than the Tigris and Euphrates. The Sahara in certain periods became a wet savannah. The last time this happened was 9,000 years ago. This can be confirmed by rock paintings that depict an abundance of animals.
Fauna
Huge glacial mammals, such as bison, woolly rhinoceros and mammoth, became an important and unique source of food for ancient people. Hunting such large animals required a lot of coordination and brought people together noticeably. The effectiveness of “teamwork” has proven itself more than once in the construction of parking lots and the manufacture of clothing. Deer and wild horses enjoyed no less “honor” among ancient people.
Language and communication
Language was perhaps the main life hack of ancient man. It was thanks to speech that they were preserved and passed on from generation to generation. important technologies processing tools, making and maintaining fire, as well as various human adaptations for everyday survival. Perhaps the details of hunting large animals and migration directions were discussed in Paleolithic language.
Allörd warming
Scientists are still arguing whether the extinction of mammoths and other glacial animals was the work of man or caused by natural causes - the Allerd warming and the disappearance of food plants. As a result of extermination large quantity species of animals, a person in harsh conditions faced death from lack of food. There are known cases of the death of entire cultures simultaneously with the extinction of mammoths (for example, the Clovis culture in North America). However, warming became an important factor in the migration of people to regions whose climate became suitable for the emergence of agriculture.