From the National Science Foundation Press Release 14-032
Climate of Genghis Khan’s ancient time extends long shadow over Asia of today
Current drought in Mongolia could have serious consequences
 View of the modern-day Orkhon Valley near Karakorum, the ancient Mongol capital.
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March 10, 2014
Climate was very much on Genghis Khan’s side as he expanded his Mongol Empire across northeastern Asia.
That link between Mongolia’s climate and its human history echoes down the centuries, according to findings reported in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
But climate may no longer be the boon it was during the latter, wetter part of Genghis Khan’s reign. The early years were marked by drought.
Mongolia’s current drought conditions could have serious consequences for the Asia region’s human and other inhabitants.
The discovery linking ancient and modern history hinges on wood. Trees provide an extensive climate record in their rings.
The tree rings’ tales of ebbs and flows in water availability show that Genghis Khan took power during a severe drought, says Amy Hessl, a geographer at West Virginia University and co-author of the paper.
But, the scientists found, the rapid expansion of Genghis Khan’s empire coincided with the wettest period in the region during the last millennium.
“Through a careful analysis of tree-ring records spanning eleven centuries, the researchers have provided valuable information about a period of great significance,” says Tom Baerwald, a program director for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program, which funded the research.
CNH is one of NSF’s Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) programs. CNH is supported by NSF’s Directorates for Geosciences; Biological Sciences; and Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences.
“The results also provide insights into the complex interactions of climate, vegetation and human activity in semi-arid regions today,” Baerwald says.
Though political realities would also have played into Genghis Khan’s power grab, the regional climate at the time appears to have supported his empire’s expansion.
The climate provided literal horsepower as armies and their horses fed off the fertile, rain-fed land.
“Such a strong and unified center would have required a concentration of resources that only higher productivity could have sustained, in a land in which extensive pastoral production does not normally provide surplus resources,” the paper states.
While the ramifications for past history are significant, so, too, are they for today’s.
The scientists believe that human-caused warming may have exacerbated the current drought in central Mongolia, similar to the drought that coincided with Genghis Khan’s initial rise to power.
“If future warming overwhelms increased precipitation, episodic ‘heat droughts’ and their social, economic and political consequences will likely become more common in Mongolia and Inner Asia,” according to the paper.
Hessl co-authored the report with scientists Neil Pederson of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Nachin Baatarbileg of the National University of Mongolia, Kevin Anchukaitis of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Nicola Di Cosmo of the Institute for Advanced Study.
-NSF-
The Mongolia drought is the result of increasing atmospheric pression, that is anticyclonic conditions, colder more powerful air masses coming from the arctic… The exact opposite of global warming! These “scientists” should go back to school in meteorology.
“The scientists believe that human-caused warming may have exacerbated the current drought in central Mongolia, similar to the drought that coincided with Genghis Khan’s initial rise to power.”
Crispin in Waterloo says:
March 12, 2014 at 4:34 pm
@ROM
I asked, “Aren’t there any vegetables in the traditional diet?” and was told. “In Mongolia, chicken is a vegetable.”
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So, what is the dessert?
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Michael Mann can explain it. He’s the expert on proxology.
Maybe, maybe not…
In ancient days, and by ancient I mean hundreds of thousands of years ago, 9 out of 10 years were ice ages. Africa did not have ice, so the smart people lived there. They multiplied, compared to any people living north and running up against ice, and eventually headed north and overran everyone else. This is true regardless of were they originally came from, BTW, the first humans could have come from elsewhere, but they would have ended up in Africa, and thrived there, because of the distinct lack of ice. So, we can say that most of our ancesters were Africans, at least, perhaps all.
However…Recently scientists discovered a tribe somewhere in Africa who look like white tanned California surfure boys (stil pretty brown as sufer types look). They examined them, and discovered that they were genetically African. They then threw up their hands, and exclaimed that they did not really know why most Africans were black after all. I mean, there is plenty of sun in, say, Saudi Arabia, why aren’t they black? The theory now is (and no such theory can be proven yet) that the reason they are black now is fashion. For a very long time, they have believed that black is beutifull, and the blacker the better. Women would dye their palms black to meet men, for example. Do that for a couple of hundred thousand years and you will get pretty dark to.
The conclusion is, from looking at American fashion magazines, that eventually all Americans will be hugely tall, skinny things.
Thanks Legatus…
I still can’t get my head around “The scientists believe that human-caused warming may have exacerbated the current drought in central Mongolia, similar to the drought that coincided with Genghis Khan’s initial rise to power”
So there was human caused warming in Genghis Khan’s time?
The link provided by Mark And Two Cats at 1:49 to evidence of Genghis Khan’s genetic legacy was a delight to read.
One becomes so jaundiced by the lack of integrity of Climate ‘science’ papers that a connected chain of logic, backed by numbers, is a breath of fresh air.
For Genghis Khan rain and high humidity were a serious problem. His 80 Kg pull composite bows were not water or moisture tolerant. The bowmen did poorly in places like Viet Nam and the wet part of India.
At the same time there was lack of rainfall in Polynesia, which caused Maori peoples to migrate to New Zealand.
“goldminor says:
………..
So, what is the dessert?”
The Gobi.
The Mongols may have changed climate thru land use. Their cavalry and herds advanced over a wide front , foraging and trampling crops , herding the farmers off as slaves. The trampled fields became grassland, and an avenue for easy return to the conquered lands.
“I’m sick and tired of the words “climate change”….
but can’t think of anything better……”
Policy made up and based climate change?
“Assuming we could control the weather.
Drought/flood, warm/cool.
Where would “we” make it occur ?
Or is there a goldilocks plan in the works ?
Where warring nations, respect the climate normality ?
Ya gotta be kidding.”
The next big thing from the leftist would be climate justice for all?
Hold on hold on!
It happened before.
But we are causing it now?
Bollocks!
“The scientists believe that human-caused warming may have exacerbated the current drought in central Mongolia, similar to the drought that coincided with Genghis Khan’s initial rise to power.”
What evidence do these scientists provide which proves that the current drought results as a consequence of human-caused warming, while they concede that the previous drought was not human-caused?
Surely, if they have proven that the current drought and the drought which Genghis Kahn so capably exploited were each a result of two differing causes, one natural and one anthropogenic, despite being similar in physical effect, they should present their alleged proof to the general public for evaluation.
I think that they merely assume that the current drought is human-caused, because that represents current dogma, but that they acknowledge that the earlier drought could not be human-caused.
There are numerous references in the history of the Mongol Hordes of how they rose to power through a series of decades long good seasons across the steppes of Central Asia which allowed them to dramatically increase their livestock numbers, particularly the Mongolian Horses that were the backbone of their civilisation and also allowed their numbers to increase quite dramatically.
Remember, climate scientists do not rely on the written history of mankind in their work. This is what gave them license to ignore the work of H.H. Lamb.
Some of the history is laid out in the book “Life of Ghenghis Khan” 1931…
How about the Zulu story? they were forced out of their ancestral land by it becoming the south end of todays sahara, basically the same story, and about the time of the little ice age I think, now its warming (from the lia not man!) we see the sahara greening up! but still not as much as it was, like the warmies poster boy in greenland where they show the Viking fields starting to appear from under the ice, the religion destroy their own argument with their own evidence anne are too brainwashed to see it.
Reminded me of this study:
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/was-genghis-khan-historys-greenest-conqueror
“Genghis Khan’s Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com.
Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.”
“But, the scientists found, the rapid expansion of Genghis Khan’s empire coincided with the wettest period in the region during the last millennium.”
It looks like the early 1220’s actually had narrower tree rings. Figure S5:
http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2014/03/06/1318677111.DCSupplemental/pnas.201318677SI.pdf
Figure 2:
http://bit.ly/1nCS9TP
Mohatdebos says:
“Truly unbelieveable. The Mongol hordes are forced by a severe drought to leave Mongolia for greener pastures occupied by other ethnic groups.”
Correct, the main Mongol expansion was while the tree rings were still narrower, i.e. before 1220:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Genghis_Khan_empire-en.svg
Ulric Lyons says:
March 13, 2014 at 7:02 am
correction; before 1215
The biggest pro-cyclical factor of them all is——researchers.
Guys, I can’t top “Gobi dessert”. That is brilliant.
@ROM says:
>As I understand the history of Ghengis Khan’s [ born “Temujin” 1162- August 1227. reputed to have died of a nose bleed ]
According to the last book I read called only “Ghengis Khan” he died from complications following a second heavy fall from a horse while hunting, the first not having been enough to stop his favourite pursuit. He was 65. They moved him to a secluded valley China where he lingered. The valley is suspected to be in a ‘known place’ still protected and picked over by people looking for traditional healing herbs. He actual burial place is still unknown – just rumoured.
His rise to power began about 1180. Don’t think drought had anything whatsoever to do with it. He was a bitter young man who had been humiliated multiple times and was bent on revenge. He was a good negotiator and inspired confidence – he was particularly loyal to people who helped him and a terror to those who did the opposite.
He invaded China three times and sections, in campaigns separate by years. Later in life, having moved his capital to Afghanistan, he was struck by the teaching of a Chinese ascetic who had become very famous. This man inspired in the Khan a certain spiritual transformation which in later years had many long term consequences for Asia. The Ascetic arrived tagging along with a caravan with 200 concubines (a present from a Chinese region). Quite a story that one.
Khan had useless sons and divided the empire into 8 regions plus a home state (Mongols like the number 9) and put one of his daughters in charge of each, either directly or indirectly. For 100 years, whatever else you heard, the empire was run through back channels by women who coordinated and collaborated via letters. The “Secret History” mentioned above has many things in it that were otherwise lost for centuries.
@ROM says:
>As I understand the history of Ghengis Khan’s [ born “Temujin” 1162- August 1227. reputed to have died of a nose bleed ]
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It was Attila the Hun who is said to have died of a nosebleed, this on the night of his marriage to Idilca, as his bride’s name comes down to us.
the attribution of climate to the Mongol’s conquest diminishes the role of Temujin, the extraordinary personality who forged a confederation of the peoples of central Asia (not just Mongols) and with this conquered like none before or since. The global warmers having tried to re-write science, now turn their hand to re-writing history, as more fodder for the creaking propaganda mill.