The Environmental Collapse of the Mayan Civilization

The Environmental Collapse of the Mayan Civilization

Instructions:
The goal of this paper is to apply a scientific approach to answer questions about the earth and environment.

Formatting and Content Instructions:

8-10 full pages of text; double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1 margins
With final submission: no title page or abstract need to be included
Paper should have a strong thesis, supporting arguments, and conclusion
Students should choose words carefully and make every word and sentence count to fill 8 pages. Images are encouraged with proper source credit, but do not contribute to overall paper length
No block quotesrather, paraphrase and cite the source accordingly. You should have sources cited in text and a list of cited works (bibliography) at the end.
Include at least 7 bibliographical sources (such as academic books and articles) in addition to relevant textbooks from this course. You must use more printed sources (articles, books) than non-print sources (websites, films).

Summary I wrote:

There have been several studies that suggest a number of reasons for the decline of Maya civilization in the southern lowlands, including overpopulation, environmental degradation, and drought. Crop yields may have also been affected by strained agricultural land. Moreover, the overpopulation of the region, where it is estimated that there were between 3 million to 11 million Maya inhabiting the area, may have caused a scarcity of resources, causing the once powerful rulers to crumble further. The collapse likely resulted from a combination of factors which I will discuss in this paper.
My research seeks to understand the demise of the Maya Civilization and whether societal dynamics linked to natural resource depletion can provide an explanation for the ultimate fall of the Classic Maya. My argument is that the drought-ridden land and over-population were primary contributions to the destruction of their civilization.

Bibliography (These sources must be used)

Douglas, P. M. J., Demarest, A. A., Brenner, M., & Canuto, M. A. (2016). Impacts of climate change on the collapse of lowland Maya civilization. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 44(1), 613645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-060115-012512

Douglas, P. M., Pagani, M., Canuto, M. A., Brenner, M., Hodell, D. A., Eglinton, T. I., & Curtis, J. H. (2015). Drought, agricultural adaptation, and sociopolitical collapse in the maya lowlands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(18), 56075612. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419133112

Hodell, D. A., Curtis, J. H., & Brenner, M. (1995). Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature, 375(6530), 391394. https://doi.org/10.1038/375391a0

Kennett, D. J., & Beach, T. P. (2013). Archeological and environmental lessons for the anthropocene from the Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene, 4, 88100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002

Peterson, L., & Haug, G. (2005). Climate and the collapse of maya civilization. American Scientist, 93(4), 322. https://doi.org/10.1511/2005.54.968

Roman, S., Palmer, E., & Brede, M. (2018). The dynamics of humanenvironment interactions in the collapse of the classic maya. Ecological Economics, 146, 312324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.11.007

Turner, B. L., & Sabloff, J. A. (2012). Classic period collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands: Insights about humanenvironment relationships for Sustainability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(35), 1390813914. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1210106109

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