Can we learn from our predecessors? And if so, what lesson is to be derived? If, as has been suspected by some, Neandethal-Made Climate Change ultimately resulted in the extinction of this race, then what are we to make of the concomittant rise of the so-called "modern human"? Are we simply more resilient; better able to adapt to climatic change?
The overlapping twilight of Neanderthals and dawn of modern humans in Western Europe, from roughly 45,000 to 35,000 years ago, was a time of intense climate disruption. Massive icebergs melting in the North Atlantic stalled major oceanic currents, producing rapid regional oscillations between balmy mildness and harsh cold.
Although increasing evidence indicates that Neanderthals may not have fallen victim to climate change per se, but rather were simply unable to compete effectively with the new breed of humans, one set of facts is incontrovertible:
Severe climate change was occurring at the time.
Modern humans did not cause it (so it must have been All Neanderthal's Fault).
Modern humans went on to thrive.
And the planet did not die, despite the fact that modern humans at the time were too busy doing other things to waste their time and energies on idiocies such as "saving the planet".
