Guess what DIDN'T cause the collapse of the Maya?

[CrusaderFrank]

Deforestation.

That's right! You heard, right! All those Earth in the Balance WingNuts who claimed that the Mayan clear cut their way to oblivion have to go back to the drawing board, maybe talk things over with Phil Jones formerly of East Angelia.

After reading this I'm certain I did the world a disservice by majoring in economics and finance instead of staying with my first choice: archaeology

"New Research by Lehman Professor: Deforestation Did Not Cause Collapse of Maya
December 14, 2009

An archeologist who earned her doctorate only three years ago has shattered accepted scientific thinking about the collapse of the ancient Maya civilization. Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), led by Dr. Cameron L. McNeil of Lehman's anthropology faculty, argues that large-scale deforestation did not cause the collapse of the ancient Maya city of Copan in Honduras, as many had believed."

Lehman Today: New Research by Lehman Professor: Deforestation Did Not Cause Collapse of Maya

 

[Douger]

they didn't collapse. They all moved to Chicago to hang drywall

 

[Charles Stucker]

Deforestation.

I always suspected GoreBull warming.
Now I know.

 

[Againsheila]

I never heard that's what caused the demise of the Mayans. I do know that's what caused the demise of the people on Easter Island.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

I always argue that it was the top heavy social structure, and the monumental architecture that did them in. All the lower classes had to spend all their time servicing the upper classes. Sort of what did in the Bourbons, Zimbabwe, Ankor Wat, and the Athenian Democracy. They spent more than they had, the taxes to keep it going were higher than the revenue the peasants could produce, and the peasants just began to run away.

 

[Charles Stucker]

I always argue that it was the top heavy social structure, and the monumental architecture that did them in. All the lower classes had to spend all their time servicing the upper classes. Sort of what did in the Bourbons, Zimbabwe, Ankor Wat, and the Athenian Democracy. They spent more than they had, the taxes to keep it going were higher than the revenue the peasants could produce, and the peasants just began to run away.

Are you talking about the Mayans or the USA?

 

[Old Rocks]

Deforestation.

That's right! You heard, right! All those Earth in the Balance WingNuts who claimed that the Mayan clear cut their way to oblivion have to go back to the drawing board, maybe talk things over with Phil Jones formerly of East Angelia.

After reading this I'm certain I did the world a disservice by majoring in economics and finance instead of staying with my first choice: archaeology

"New Research by Lehman Professor: Deforestation Did Not Cause Collapse of Maya
December 14, 2009

An archeologist who earned her doctorate only three years ago has shattered accepted scientific thinking about the collapse of the ancient Maya civilization. Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), led by Dr. Cameron L. McNeil of Lehman's anthropology faculty, argues that large-scale deforestation did not cause the collapse of the ancient Maya city of Copan in Honduras, as many had believed."

Lehman Today: New Research by Lehman Professor: Deforestation Did Not Cause Collapse of Maya

One paper by one professor does not a consensus make.

By everything that I have read, the Mayan faced an array of problems at the point of their collapse.

KELLEH!: The Collapse of the Mayans

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Deforestation.

That's right! You heard, right! All those Earth in the Balance WingNuts who claimed that the Mayan clear cut their way to oblivion have to go back to the drawing board, maybe talk things over with Phil Jones formerly of East Angelia.

After reading this I'm certain I did the world a disservice by majoring in economics and finance instead of staying with my first choice: archaeology

"New Research by Lehman Professor: Deforestation Did Not Cause Collapse of Maya
December 14, 2009

An archeologist who earned her doctorate only three years ago has shattered accepted scientific thinking about the collapse of the ancient Maya civilization. Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), led by Dr. Cameron L. McNeil of Lehman's anthropology faculty, argues that large-scale deforestation did not cause the collapse of the ancient Maya city of Copan in Honduras, as many had believed."

Lehman Today: New Research by Lehman Professor: Deforestation Did Not Cause Collapse of Maya

One paper by one professor does not a consensus make.

By everything that I have read, the Mayan faced an array of problems at the point of their collapse.

KELLEH!: The Collapse of the Mayans

The article lists deforestation as the primary reason and then as a contributor to "Climate changes" as another factor.

Funny that the author talks about a drought over a 125 year period and yet some get hysterical over a little hiccup in some measurement of the troposphere over last year.

Probably more likely is that some European visitor accidentally decimated the Mayan with a pathogen: small pox, et. al.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

It's amazing how this low-brow Climate Change crap passes for Science. The jungles of MesoAmerica get to be 115 so I think they have a good handle on how to deal with "GlobalWarmerCoolering"

 

[Baruch Menachem]

The article lists deforestation as the primary reason and then as a contributor to "Climate changes" as another factor.

Funny that the author talks about a drought over a 125 year period and yet some get hysterical over a little hiccup in some measurement of the troposphere over last year.

Probably more likely is that some European visitor accidentally decimated the Mayan with a pathogen: small pox, et. al.

Mayans were gone 600 years before Columbus.

I just think it was some king who got too full of himself and ran the economy into the ground for his own glory

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is 0bamandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

 

[hjmick]

The collapse of the Mayans was an inside job.

 

[Charles Stucker]

The collapse of the Mayans was an inside job.

That's just because they lived under the WTC

 

[Avatar4321]

If it wasnt deforestation there is only one thing that could have possibly destroyed the Mayan civilization: George W. Bush.

 

[Charles Stucker]

If it wasnt deforestation there is only one thing that could have possibly destroyed the Mayan civilization: George W. Bush.

Darn, you topped all my suggestions with this one. Remember we can never forget to Blame Booosh