Utilizing Paleoclimate Data to Analyze the Relationship Between Climate Change and Human Activities

Abstract

Our research aims at finding the relationship between climatic cycle-changes and the human activities in ancient China. Most climatic changes show shifts in the precipitation volume and alternations between warm and cold periods. Through other research findings, we find the precipitation volume is closely connected with alternations of warm and cold periods. This report presents a linear comparison between the population of ancient China and the east Asia climate variables and chooses tree rings as the main indicator of the paleo-climate. Through the literature review and the data analysis, we find that (1) The dominant climate pattern in East Asia is East Asia Summer Monsoon system, causing centennial scaled climate periodicities, affecting the ecosystem and the society. (2) There are certain cycles of climate change, in which the warm period and the cold period have a certain influence on the population change. (3) The precipitation has a certain correlation with the population change. However, single temperature and precipitation cannot directly affect the population change, but also need to be combined with social and historical factors specific analysis.