Climate change resilience over the past 5,000 years: How have human societies adapted throughout history?

Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Agency shows that average global temperatures in 2024 are almost certain to exceed the Paris Climate Agreement limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial average temperatures for the first time.

Against this backdrop, researchers from the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence at Kiel University, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Heidelberg University and the University of Cambridge (UK) are seeking to better study the resilience of human societies to climate change. I’m looking for it.

In a review article currently published in the journal Environment Research Letters, an interdisciplinary team of geosciences and archaeologists discuss important discoveries about climate resilience over the past 5,000 years. At the same time, the authors highlight existing knowledge gaps and identify potential new research approaches.

“We wanted to understand how societies can remain stable, resilient, and even prosperous despite climate risks. The goal is to derive sustainable strategies for the future from the successes and failures of the past, even if they are much larger than the scale of pre-industrial climate change over the past 5,000 years.” Former member of “Development” and lead author LMU said Dr. Liang Emlin Yang. roots.

In their study, the researchers provide examples of historical adaptation to climate change, from early hunter-gatherer societies to industrial societies. “This study shows that as society becomes more technologically advanced, people’s ability to adapt also increases,” explains co-author and ROOTS scientific coordinator Dr. Mara Weinert. At the same time, industrialization has created large economic disparities around the world, resulting in vastly different levels of resilience and vulnerability to climate risks.

While there are already many known examples of the resilience of human societies to climate change at different geographic scales and historical contexts, the authors highlight a significant need for further research. They propose the development of a new scientific field called ‘climate resilience studies’ that should incorporate historical and archaeological findings to develop resilience strategies for our present and future.

“This can only be achieved if different scientific disciplines work closely together to understand the complex interrelationships of resilience across time and space,” says Weinert.

This article is also an editorial introduction to the Environment Research Letters theme: “Society Resilience to Climate Change over the Past 5000 Years.” This focus focuses on different examples of societal resilience to climate and environmental impacts, from prehistoric, historical and contemporary, regional and global perspectives, and from the perspective of theoretical, empirical and quantitative modeling. The purpose is to understand manifestation and change.