Potential Causes of the Historical Mayan Apocalypse

Real Mayan Apocalypse May Have Been Their Own Fault

By Stephanie Pappas | LiveScience.com – 3 hrs ago

SAN FRANCISCO — For generations, the Maya thrived in an advanced, complex civilization in modern-day Central America. But then their society collapsed in the eighth and ninth centuries. Now, a new study finds that the Maya may have had a hand in their own apocalypse.

Deforestation in Central America before Europeans arrived contributed to drought in the region, according to the research presented today (Dec. 5) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Researchers have long suspected that drought contributed to the demise of Mayan civilization, though other factors such as conflicts and overpopulation may have also hastened the Maya's doom.

Using new reconstructions of vegetation stretching back 2,000 years, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies climatologist Benjamin Cook and colleagues found that forest-clearing by Mayan farmers worsened drought conditions in the area.

In fact, past research has shown similarly that the ancient South American Nazca civilization (known for large geoglyphs called Nazca lines) may have caused its own demise by clear-cutting large swaths of forest.

In the case of the Mayans, how did relatively primitive farmers manage to affect the weather? When the Mayans cleared forests, they exposed land surface with a higher albedo, or reflectivity, than the dark-green forest canopy. This land surface reflected energy back into the atmosphere rather than absorbing it, lessening the amount of energy on the land surface available to do things like convect water vapor to form clouds and thus rain. The result, Cook said, was a decline in precipitation by 10 percent to 20 percent.

With less rain, the soil dried out, so any extra energy went to warming the surface rather than evaporating water. The result was a rise in surface temperature by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius). The lack of rainfall and boost in heat would have been bad news for a society whose survival depended on their farmlands. end quote from http://news.yahoo.com/real-mayan-apocalypse-may-own-fault-214407653.html

If you study the Easter Island culture that went extinct from overpopulation and cutting all their trees down and you study the Mayan culture that likely went extinct from cutting down their forests and thereby causing a 10 percent to 20 percent reduction in rainfall and a rise in temperatures, then you can see how easy it is for world civilizations to just do one thing wrong and soon cease to be. Only this time the whole world is interconnected on so many ways that we are dealing this time with a potential end over the next 1000 years end of our world civilizations through overpopulation and deforestation and over fishing the worlds oceans.

However, regarding the Mayan culture, it is unlikely that everyone died, only those that stayed in that area. Others, likely left the area and intermarried with other tribes in the overall region and found ways to survive. But the Mayan civilization as such ended much like during the fall of Rome which   culminated on September 4, 476 AD. However, Rome didn't cease existence but continued in a new governmental form and still exists after many permutations today. However, the Mayan cities were permanently abandoned for some reason. Here is a quote regarding  Meso American Mayan civilization.

begin quote from Maya civilization from Wikipedia:

Maya civilization
People · Languages · Society
Religion · Mythology · Sacrifice
Cities · Architecture · Calendar
Stelae · Textiles · Trade
Pre-Columbian Music · Writing
History
Preclassic Maya
Classic Maya collapse
Spanish conquest of Yucatán
Spanish conquest of Guatemala
v · d · e

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD), according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period (c. 250 to 900 AD), and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.
The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, Northern El Salvador and to as far as central Mexico, more than 1,000 km (620 mi) from the Maya area. Many outside influences are found in Maya art and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest.
The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Many Mayan languages continue to be spoken as primary languages today; the Rabinal Achí, a play written in the Achi language, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.