The Agro-Meteorological Caused Famines as an Evolutionary Factor in the Formation of Civilisation and History: Representative Cases in Europe

Abstract

Throughout history, food adequacy has been one of the most critical parameters for the survival of human societies. The prevailing atmospheric conditions have always been recognised as the primary and most uncontrolled factors that determine crop production, both quantitatively and qualitatively. However, this is only a part of the effects chain. In order to assess the magnitude of the potential cultural impacts of weather changes in a region, it is crucial to comprehend the underlying mechanism of successive consequences that relate the proximate causes, which in our case are the adverse Agro-Meteorological Conditions (AMC), to their effects on society. The present study focuses on the analysis of the impacts’ mechanism on human societies. Moreover, several characteristic agro-meteorological events that have led to significant changes in European civilisation are presented as case studies. The results highlight the linkage between weather and its impact on history evolution based on Agro-Meteorological Famine (AMF). The proposed concept and its analysis by the schematic presentation are in corroboration with the documented historical events of European history. Moreover, the presented connections between weather, agricultural production, and society revealed the significant contribution of the short-term adverse weather conditions on the mechanism of the human civilisation evolution.

A Pathway towards Climate Services for the Agricultural Sector

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“…Numerous complexities characterize the agricultural sector, and the end user/farmer lacks familiarity with new technologies [7,8]. In addition, agriculture constitutes a fundamental sector of human survival and the global economy since foodstuffs directly or indirectly originate from crop and animal production [9][10][11]. This publication attempts to provide brief answers to simple questions about climate services, specifically to those linked to the agricultural sector, such as farmers, agronomists, agriculture-related institutes, and private companies.…”

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Changes in the Seasonal Cycle of Heatwaves, Dry and Wet Spells over West Africa Using CORDEX Simulations

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