Downfall of Mayan Civilization: Impact of Environmental Destruction

Mara Simmons

The Mayan civilization existed for two millennia but seemed to vanish in a very short amount of time; this was due to a variety of factors, but in particular, their practice of deforestation. Their effort to make room for more settlement and land for agriculture to feed their rapidly growing population may have directly caused the climate to change so significantly that severe droughts occurred. A NASA science team used computer simulation and atmospheric/geographic mapping to explore how deforestation in the region once occupied by the Maya could have changed the air temperature by five or six degrees Celsius, leading to cyclical droughts which may have driven many forms of conflict which eventually tore the Maya apart. Ninety percent of the Maya had abandoned their cities towards the very end of the Classical period, and there is anthropological evidence of inner class conflict, likely due (at least partly) to starvation and improper management of water resources. The deforestation of this region has had long-lasting consequences for the environment, but to this day Mesoamerican forests are still widely being deforested, and only a small percentage of original forest remains in the region. More conservation efforts of forest and water resources need to be undertaken so that the region, as one of the climate hotspots of the world, does not experience such a disaster again.

• Mara Simmons is a student of psychology at Lander University.