Monsoon Rains, Great Rivers and the Development of Farming Civilisations in Asia (Hardcover)

Peter D. Clift

ISBN 10: 1107030080 / ISBN 13: 9781107030084

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021

About this Item

Hardcover. The Asian monsoon and associated river systems supply the water that sustains a large portion of humanity, and has enabled Asia to become home to some of the oldest and most productive farming systems on Earth. This book uses climate data and environmental models to provide a detailed review of variations in the Asian monsoon since the mid-Holocene, and its impacts on farming systems and human settlement. Future changes to the monsoon due to anthropogenically-driven global warming are also discussed. Faced with greater rainfall and more cyclones in South Asia, as well as drying in North China and regional rising sea levels, understanding how humans have developed resilient strategies in the past to climate variations is critical. Containing important implications for the large populations and booming economies in the Indo-Pacific region, this book is an important resource for researchers and graduate students studying the climate, environmental history, agronomy and archaeology of Asia. A detailed review of variations in the Asian monsoon since the mid-Holocene and its impacts on farming systems. This book assesses data and climate models predicting changes to the monsoon in the coming centuries, and discusses how past adaptive strategies might provide clues for how to manage future change. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781107030084

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Monsoon Rains, Great Rivers and the Development of Farming Civilisations in Asia (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107030080
• ISBN 13: 9781107030084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The Asian monsoon and associated river systems supply the water that sustains a large portion of humanity, and has enabled Asia to become home to some of the oldest and most productive farming systems on Earth. This book uses climate data and environmental models to provide a detailed review of variations in the Asian monsoon since the mid-Holocene, and its impacts on farming systems and human settlement. Future changes to the monsoon due to anthropogenically-driven global warming are also discussed. Faced with greater rainfall and more cyclones in South Asia, as well as drying in North China and regional rising sea levels, understanding how humans have developed resilient strategies in the past to climate variations is critical. Containing important implications for the large populations and booming economies in the Indo-Pacific region, this book is an important resource for researchers and graduate students studying the climate, environmental history, agronomy and archaeology of Asia.

About the Authors

Peter Clift is the Charles T. McCord Chair in Petroleum Geology at Louisiana State University. He is an affiliate faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yunnan University, China, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. In 2008 he co-authored The Asian Monsoon: Causes, History and Effects (Cambridge).

Jade d'Alpoim Guedes is Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California. Jade is an environmental archaeologist and ethnobiologist who employs an interdisciplinary research program to understand how humans adapted their foraging practices and agricultural strategies to new environments and have developed resilience in the face of climatic and social change.