Mongolian herders

may not know the term “global climate change,” but almost all know that their weather is changing. If asked whether the weather will get better, stay the same or get worse, most of them will say the weather will get worse. Mongolian herders already face difficult seasons with winter temperatures down to minus 40 degrees Celsius and strong, gusty cold spring winds. Summer may not offer much of a respite. The days alternate between cold nights and daytime heat waves or cold, windy, rainy days. Over the last 20 years strong wind gusts have become more frequent and storms arrive with little warning. The herders love their lives, but many are afraid there may be no future in herding for their children.

In 2009 and 2010, my wife, Tuya, and I interviewed herders with a series of open-ended questions to learn of their perceptions of climate change in the steppe forest region of northern Mongolia. Mongolia has warmed almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.14 degrees Celsius) over the last 70 years. This summer and next we are visiting many of the herders previously interviewed to confirm their perceptions and awareness of climate change in this part of the world.


http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/herders-say-weather-will-worsen/?partner=rssnyt&emc=rs

It seems completely inhospitable for life...

It's seasonal. They work hard in summer and hunker down in the winter. But their animals graze outside year round. It's rural and there are no amenities, but they like it. Now it's going all to hell. There was an aricle in Nature a couple months back, by this guy. It's a tragedy, really. And we're causing it.

Trial by fire I guess

What most people don't realize is that Genghis Khan was really more of a rallying political figure than a military man. He was already north of 50 when he finally got all the Mongol tribes together. So after all the work of uniting them and creating a single Mongol state/entity, the decision to engage in wholesale conquest of Asia was mostly for the purpose of "Let's keep them all busy so that they don't start fighting with each other again."

Only to be thwarted by a tsunami....TWICE...

Is pretty badass

In agricultural societies most of the population has to work the soil to feed everyone.

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

- Wendell Berry

before the 20th century.

I've endured winters on the prairie, and the thought of getting through one night, much less a full winter, with nothing more than a buffalo-skin robe and a teepee to keep me warm sounds freaking impossible. You could probably argue that the Mongolians had it easier than the Native Americans, because at least they had domesticated livestock and horses for transportation. Native Americans endured similar climates while moving on foot, with nothing larger than dogs to pull their supplies and no livestock to speak of until Europeans arrived.

from the natural world, and majes it easier to ignore the changes. Hell, most city dwellers have never seen the night sky.