Introduction - History Driven by Climate, Climate Changed by Humanity

1.
The sketch of history that began to be drawn on Earth

Chapter 1: Humanity Spreads Across the World on Glaciers
Chapter 2: The Sprouts of Civilization Sprout in the Warmth of the Holocene
Chapter 3: The Secret of the Axis: Beyond Isolation to Interaction

2.
Climate, changing the fate of civilization and the map of the world

Chapter 4: Horses, a Gift from the Eurasian Steppe to Humanity
Chapter 5: El Niño: The Fate of Crete and Greece
Chapter 6: The Intertropical Convergence Zone That Locked Human Ancestors in Africa
Chapter 7: Why did Maya disappear from the dense jungle?
Chapter 8: The Secret of China's Protecting the Great Central Plains of East Asia
Chapter 9: The Reasons Why Rome Lost Its Glory as a Great Empire and Fractured
Chapter 10: The Black Death Ends the Warm Dark Ages
Chapter 11: The Rainy Season in the North of the Continent That Led to the Glory of Pax Mongolica
Chapter 12: The Han Empire's Powerful Gunpowder Empire Destroyed by the Little Ice Age
Chapter 13: Fighting Europe, Europeans Embark on a New World

3.
From the history of climate change to the era of climate crisis

Chapter 14: The Man-Made Climate Crisis Caused by Industrialization and Fossil Fuels
Chapter 15: Human habitats disappearing due to erosion by deserts and seas
Chapter 16: The Food Crisis and the Fear of Epidemics Around the World
Chapter 17: War, Terrorism, and the Climate Security Emergency
Chapter 18: Can the Anthropocene Avoid Mass Extinction?

Going Out - History is a series of challenges and responses.

Chronology
Americas
Map source

Climate has always been both a crisis and an opportunity for humanity.
Can the Anthropocene Mass Extinction Be Avoided?

“The unique perspective of a geographer, who searches for answers by looking broadly across time and space, stands out.”
Park Jeong-jae, Professor of Geography, Seoul National University, author of "The Power of Climate"

“This is a great book that provides a correct perspective on humanity and the environment, and I highly recommend it to future generations living in the era of climate crisis.”
- Ma Kyung-mook, teacher at the National Geography Teachers Association, author of "History Asks, Geography Answers"

From the beginning of mankind to the rise and fall of civilization,
And from industrialization to today's climate crisis

Geographer Lee Dong-min examines human history through the lens of climate.

History Driven by Climate, Climate Changed by Humanity

Today, the 'climate crisis', including global warming and abnormal weather phenomena, has emerged as the most serious and urgent problem threatening the survival of humanity.
But in fact, climate has been influencing human life since a very long time ago, when the human species first appeared on Earth.
As ancient civilizations sprouted and civilizations large and small rose and fell, the climate constantly changed, presenting humanity with crises or opportunities each time.
So, what makes today's climate crisis so different from historical climate change, making it such a serious and critical issue? To truly understand why the current climate crisis is being called a "crisis," we need to examine how climate has impacted human civilization and how the relationship between humanity and climate has evolved from a world-historical and global-historical perspective.

The author, a professor of geography education at Catholic Kwandong University, has consistently written about the history of war and global history.
"Reading World History Through Climate" is the result of the author's interests and areas of expertise exquisitely aligned.
In this book, the author describes world history from the broad perspective of a geographer, and from a geographical perspective, explains the impact of climate change on the history of human civilization.

Part 1 of the book examines how modern humans, once mere "naked apes" living in southern Africa, were able to spread across the globe and how civilizations emerged in various parts of the world, along with the climatic conditions of the time.
Part 2 traces the process by which humans domesticated horses and established vast empires, the rise and fall of countless civilizations that shaped today's society and world map, and the question of why some regions of the Earth have developed advanced civilizations while others have not, all along the lines of climate change.
Although this book rewrites world history from the perspective of climate change, it does not remain stuck in the past.
The final third part covers the current state of the climate crisis, which has been manifesting as a disaster across the globe since the Industrial Revolution.
This book closely examines the international community's response to the climate crisis and the impact of climate on the modern geopolitical order, including climate security, and explores the attitudes and actions humanity must take to address the climate crisis.

The invisible force that determined the fate of civilization

Modern humans first appeared on Earth about 200,000 years ago.
And until 12,000 years ago, the Earth was in an ice age.
At that time, more than a third of the Earth's surface was covered by glaciers, and the remaining areas were barren lands such as tundra and steppe.
The Ice Age was not an easy environment for humans to survive in, but ironically, during that time, humans were able to take root all over the world.
Thanks to climate change during the Ice Age, modern humans, who had been confined to South Africa, were able to cross the Sahara Desert and the ocean.

Around this time, as the Earth's axis shifted, moisture-laden monsoon winds blew across the Sahara Desert.
At the same time, the Earth's temperature continued to drop.
Thanks to this, rain fell frequently in the dry desert, and as temperatures dropped, the amount of moisture evaporated also decreased.
The Sahara Desert has been transformed into a grassland with flowing rivers and animals running around.
As climate change changed Africa's geographic environment, humanity was able to step out into a wider world.

- Page 22 (Chapter 1: Humanity Spreading Around the World on Glaciers)

Modern humans crossed the Sahara Desert, which had become grasslands, and spread into Eurasia, and further reached the islands of Southeast Asia, which were connected to the mainland due to lower sea levels, and even the American continent.
As humanity spread out across the world, the buds of civilization gradually sprouted as the Ice Age ended and a warm climate arrived.
Since then, climate change has been a great gift to the development of human civilization.
Climate change also influenced the domestication of horses in the Eurasian steppe and the exchange of civilizations along the Silk Road, the transformation of Rome from a single city-state into an empire that dominated Europe, and the continuation of a unified dynasty in mainland China.


After 540 AD, China returned to a warm and humid climate after centuries of cold spells.
This climate change increased agricultural productivity and population support in China, and by the late 6th century, the country had recovered to a level comparable to that of the Han Dynasty at its peak.
In other words, the environmental conditions have been created for reunification to be achieved after the period of confusion.

- Page 116 (Chapter 8: The Secret of China's Protection of East Asia's Great Central Plains)

On the other hand, climate has also put human civilization in trouble.
Unlike Eurasia, which developed civilization through East-West exchanges along the Silk Road, Africa's civilization was relatively slow to develop because its north-south axis was blocked by the Sahara Desert and tropical rainforests created by the 'tropical convergence zone'.
The Black Death, the worst nightmare in medieval Europe, was also greatly influenced by the cold weather caused by the Little Ice Age.
The Mayan civilization in the Americas also once achieved brilliant development, but eventually disappeared into the back alleys of history due to drought brought on by the shift in the location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone.


Why did the Mayan civilization, boasting a history spanning well over 3,000 years, disappear, leaving behind only such magnificent and splendid ruins? Like Africa, the Mayan civilization was also underpinned by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a region that stretches across Central America.

- Page 96 (Chapter 7 Why did Maya disappear from the dense jungle?)

The book dynamically reveals the impact that climate change and resulting meteorological phenomena, such as global warming and cooling, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation, have had on the dynamics of human civilization, both knowingly and unknowingly.
Climate has been an invisible force that has shaped the course of humanity and the fate of civilization.

From the history of climate change to the era of climate crisis

“Humans cannot change the climate.
“Climate is destiny,” Heinrich Jakob wrote in “The History of Bread.”
This is to emphasize that climate has a strong influence on human life, economy, politics, etc., as if it were a given fate.
But since the Industrial Revolution, mankind has changed its destiny, even if unintentionally, with its own hands.
And we are paying the price for this changed fate in the name of the 'climate crisis'.


“Humans cannot change the climate.
Climate is destiny.
(…) The climate where you are born determines your thoughts, behavior, eating habits, customs, the country's population distribution, politics, economy, and the location of its capital.
(…) What really conquers everything is the climate.
“Climate decisions are not subject to pleas or appeals.”
- Page 523, "The History of Bread" (The House with the Well, 2005)

After passing through Parts 1 and 2 of this book, which breathlessly follows the history of human civilization across continents, we are suddenly faced with the climate crisis of the Anthropocene.
Part 3 presents an easily understandable overview of the climate crisis unfolding around the globe.
It highlights global issues such as the island nation of Tuvalu, which is at risk of being submerged by rising sea levels, the desertification of the Mongolian steppe and the growing Sahara Desert, and the decline of Vietnam's Mekong Delta, a global breadbasket, while covering the latest issues, including new infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and climate security issues such as war and terrorism.
Current issues can be better understood by comparing them to similar cases in history.
The strength of this book is that it allows us to examine why pre-modern global warming led to the development of civilization and why today's global warming poses a crisis, as well as the differences between COVID-19 and the spread of the Black Death in medieval Europe.

As with the pre-modern cold spell, today's global warming brings not only a food crisis but also another crisis: pandemics.
In pre-modern times, infectious diseases such as the Black Death were prevalent as people's nutritional status and immunity weakened in cold weather. However, today, new infectious diseases are spreading due to excessive warming.

- Page 235 (16.
The fear of food crisis and epidemic disease spreading across the world)

Humans live on Earth, and Earth provides an environment for humanity to live.
The Earth's geography and climate have created an environment suitable for human life.
However, if the climate crisis continues, the Earth may become an environment in which it is no longer possible for humanity to survive.
The greatest lesson from "Reading World History Through Climate" is that, as it has throughout our history, climate will continue to have a significant impact on our lives in the future.