You must have heard at least some stories about the Mayan culture in your life. From the predictions of the end of the world, 2012, to the ways the Mayans sacrificed people to their gods, which is still enjoying the infamous reputation. According to recent reports, Mayan civilization may even have answers to climate change adaptation.

With the highest concentration of carbon dioxide in the air in human history for the last 3 millions of years (measured by 415 ppm - particles on 1 million), we humans, 21 people. century, we can only wonder how the Mayans did. And like 21 people. We also have to ask ourselves how to use these methods in our day to keep civilization for the next generation - and the planet itself.

The Mayans still live

Despite scientists' belief in the collapse and failure of Mayan society, thousands of thoroughbred Mayans still live (after "leaving" their cities in the 9th century AD) in Guatemala and Mesoamerica (the term for Mexico and Central America before the Spanish conquest). According to the Canadian Museum of History, the Mayans are currently living in an area that includes parts of the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as Belize, Guatemala, and the western states of Honduras and El Salvador. The Mayan population had to deal with extreme droughts, a large part of them died, but part of the population survived.

Kenneth Seligson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at California State University, writes:

"Based on my research in the northern Yucatan region and the broader research of my colleagues on a larger scale, I believe that the Maya's ability to adopt food preservation practices has been a key reason for their survival to this day."

It also mentions that we have much to learn from the Maya as a society and that we can apply their strategies taking into account our "current climate change". The Mayan civilization seems to have been able to survive the extreme drought since the 2nd millennium BC, albeit with a smaller population. According to Selingston, the Mayan civilization rose again in the 3rd century. nl Laser mapping even showed us that the Maya used "sophisticated agro-cultural systems" that were able to maintain relative stability in city-states with tens of thousands of inhabitants.

How come the Mayans survived so long?

According to research, the Maya excelled in "Maximizing the efficiency of working with water, storing it, and the excellent timing of seedlings." So the ancient Maya knew how to save and how to build ecological systems. In times of emergency, they therefore relied on water supplies from years with normal precipitation. However, the water stored in this way lasted a maximum of a year or two. During prolonged droughts, the Maya were forced to adapt to change.

How did the Mayans adapt to change?

As the prolonged drought adversely affected the Mayan political hierarchy, they learned to adapt. During their reign as the most powerful people in the Americas, the Maya were able to design and implement a "more sophisticated method of patio irrigation," which, in addition to protecting the soil from erosion, made it possible to create a storage system for the water they used during the dry season.

To that end, according to Selingston, the Mayans were able to develop technology to manage the forest by monitoring the growth cycles of the trees there. This monitoring system helped them to predict future droughts and led them to store more adequate water and food in a more targeted way. Dry, which especially in the 9th and 10th century. nl could last from 3 to 20 years, the Mayans were affected differently based on their location. As a result, the Mayans have often relocated to new locations, and it has been proven that the Mayans "adopted new ways of saving food" to keep a larger population alive in the face of growing drought.

The Mayans were not the only natives to use irrigation systems. Indigenous Pueblos or indigenous Cambodians have used similar, if not the same, irrigation systems and monitoring of growth cycles. These methods have helped them all to survive to this day. Can we learn from Mayans or Cambodians? Maybe.

The Mayans struggled with climate problems at the height of their government and are still struggling. For centuries, waves of drought have survived so extreme that they would devastate the American economy (and have done so many times). But these drought waves were natural, nothing the Mayans would do would turn them away. Today, our actions affect climate more than any natural change in weather. Learning to mitigate the effects of climate fluctuations is the only way to fix them.

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Erich von Däniken - Mistakes in the land of the Maya

Archaeologists have found fifteen stone tablets with Mayan inscriptions in the Guatemalan rainforest. We managed to decipher this inscription: This is what the rulers of the heavenly family have left behind. What heavenly families? Where did Stone Age people get accurate information about the solar system or distant Pluto? The fact that they really knew it is proved by the gigantic city of pyramids Teotihuacan in Mexico, which with its architecture copies the form of the solar system. Why did they, the gods, whose shape is carved into the stones, wear cosmonaut helmets, breathing apparatus, and keyboard cases? The publication contains 202 color photographs that will amaze even the most ardent skeptics.

Mistakes in the land of the Maya