A country’s leader faces daunting climate change challenges plus social unrest at home with the threat of violent insurrection. Abroad, he is trying to wind down unsuccessful wars. President Biden? No, I am talking about Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III in 1177 B.C.
Employees of The Italian Pie in downtown New Orleans look at a coworker’s car that took a direct hit of bricks from a nearby building Aug. 31. The men were cleaning up two days after Hurricane Ida. The storm was one of multiple threats that could undermine the stability of our country – but it doesn’t have to. Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP
Throughout human history, empires have fallen for many reasons, but one of the most common is the convergence of multiple threats forming a perfect storm that undermines their stability.
In the past several months, Americans have witnessed unprecedented fires, a once-in-500-years hurricane, a disastrous evacuation from a failed 20-year war and a legislative revolt in Texas. And these events come after 19 months of global pandemic and four years of a divisive presidency that culminated in a violent coup attempt.
Because our country is not the first to be challenged by such adverse forces, we would be wise to look back through history and take note: America may be on the edge of a perfect storm.
In October 2017, professor Joseph Manning, et al., published a paper in the journal Nature describing how volcanic eruptions spewed sulphates into the atmosphere, suppressing rainfall in ancient Egypt. To an Earth.com reporter, Manning summarized their findings this way: “In years influenced by volcanic eruptions, Nile flooding was generally diminished, leading to social stress that could trigger unrest and have other political and economic consequences.”
The Egyptian people began to starve and as they did they increasingly questioned their Ptolemaic rulers’ authority. This trend escalated into open revolt. The authors wrote:
“Revolts of varying severity and extent are signaled in papyri and inscriptions, with an absence of tax receipts also indicating significant loss of state control, as during the great 20-year Theban revolt starting 207 B.C. These revolts are generally considered ‘nationalist’ uprisings by Egyptians resentful of Greek (i.e., Ptolemaic) rule, and/or burdensome state taxation, and are rarely considered in relation to socioeconomic stresses following Nile failure.”
Climate change triggered famine and instead of blaming nature, Egyptians turned on their rulers because they were of Greek origin. Ramses III had to abandon a war and come home to suppress an insurrection and open the royal granaries because Egypt was in chaos. That held for a while, then it got worse.
Crop failures were not confined to Egypt. Washington University professor Eric Cline’s book “1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed” chronicles how the entire Mediterranean basin collapsed. It started with how the stress of climate change fostered social unrest, and how that, in turn, weakened the states and their ability to defend from invaders. A mysterious group, the Sea People, began ravaging states around the Mediterranean. Although their origin is unclear, the Sea People also seemed motivated by climate change. While Ramses III fought several successful battles against them, today’s historians feel there is little doubt they marked the death knell of the Mediterranean’s glorious Bronze Age.
America has been characterized by its optimism and its arrogance. We sent people to the moon and have explored Mars. But despite a $778 billion war machine, we were unable to defeat the Taliban. Despite RNA-sequenced vaccines, 650,000 Americans have died from COVID. Despite warnings from 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists, so far we have failed to reduce our carbon output. Sometimes I am reminded of the line popularized by the cartoon “Pogo”: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Fortunately, there are also big differences between Ramses’ Egypt and 2021 America. We have the experience of history and the advantage of science and technology. YaleEnvironment360 reported Aug. 25 that a Swiss company, Climeworks, will open a new direct air capture facility in Iceland that will scrub up to 4,000 metric tons of CO2 from the air each year and store it underground. And they plan to build facilities in Scotland and Texas. All major car companies are introducing electric vehicles. General Motors has announced it will build only electric cars by 2035. The cost of generating wind and solar energy is now significantly less than producing fossil fuel. Finally, we need the political will to seek a cultural change.
Even though things change, hopefully they don’t have to stay the same.
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