Are We Prepared for the Climatic Pessimum?

We are a civilization of migrants. Movement across landscapes and continents is what has always defined us. By and large, our wanderings throughout history were rarely caused by wanderlust. It was usually forced upon us by a need to survive: finding food and water, fleeing from climatic events or enemies.

We are approaching the greatest migration event in human history and I’m wondering how it is going to play out. First, let’s look back in time for similar situations.

The Climatic Optimum

For a few thousand years, the planet was kind. The Holocene Climatic Optimum, as the scientists like to call it, was a long summer in the story of humanity. A gentle warmth that turned ice into farmland, tundra into forest, and nomads into citizens. Rivers flowed where there had been stone. Rain fell on new continents. It was the age when people stopped wandering and started building. Civilization, in all its fragile brilliance, was a side effect of good weather.

But the climate is never loyal. Around three thousand years ago, the warmth began to fade. It didn’t collapse overnight. There was no…