Episode 15: The Drying of the Sahara

Created, narrated, and produced by Professor Dagomar Degroot of Georgetown University, The Climate Chronicles reveals how climate change shaped humanity’s past, and explores what history can tell us about the future of global warming. With clear, dramatic storytelling, each episode brings history to life with exciting storytelling and cutting-edge science. In the fourth episode of our third season, Into the Holocene, Professor Degroot tells the mind-bending story of the most spectacular environmental change of our geological epoch: the drying of the Sahara Desert. Although it seems timeless, as old as anything on Earth, the Sahara is actually a recent creation. At the start of the Holocene, most of it was a savannah, watered by rivers that have long since evaporated. People fished alongside hippos and crocodiles at archaeological sites now scattered across what are now some of the driest environments on Earth. How did people live in the "Green Sahara?" What did they do when the Sahara dried out? And is it possible that one of the world's first great civilizations - ancient Egypt - emerged as climate refugees fled the encroaching sand? This episode answers all these questions, and more.

Season three of The Climate Chronicles takes listeners on an immersive journey through the remarkable changes in climate and human culture that shaped the early history of the Holocene, the geological epoch in which humans became the dominant species on our planet. It zooms in on small communities and follows continental trends across thousands of years, all while unpacking the creative detective work that distinguishes the sciences of the past.

For an episode trailer and a transcript complete with citations, as well as maps, graphs, infographics, and other images, visit TheClimateChronicles.com.