Drought and the Classic Maya

[Duncan Head]

https://www.earth.com/news/what-caused-the-maya-collapse-the-answer-was-hidden-in-a-cave/

[Nick Harbud]

...and all this without significant anthropomorphic change to atmospheric CO₂.

[Jon Freitag]

...and all this without significant anthropomorphic change to atmospheric CO₂.

An inconvenient truth?

[Keraunos]

There are many things that drive climatic changes and history is littered with societies that have adapted or failed to adapt to the stresses that these changes have caused.  The fact that there has been climatic change in the past without significant human contribution to the drivers of that change says nothing whatever about the effects that human energy production, water and land use is having on changes in climatic patterns now.  The essential point is whether ours is going to be a society that can adapt effectively to these changes or not.

[Andreas Johansson]

Acc'd a couple books I read around the turn of the millennium, Terminal Classic droughts were exacerbated by extensive deforestation that affected the regional water cycle.

[Cantabrigian]

The fact that there has been climatic change in the past without significant human contribution to the drivers of that change says nothing whatever about the effects that human energy production, water and land use is having on changes in climatic patterns now.  The essential point is whether ours is going to be a society that can adapt effectively to these changes or not.

It's pretty much irrelevant whether the current changes to the climate are caused by humans or not.  As you say, all that matters is whether we can adapt in time.