In 1350 AD we were still quite a few centuries from settling at Plymouth. I have been luckily in that I have found adequate records back to 1200s in my family tree. But this is the time of the end of the inhabitants and Civilization of the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellers. Some stayed back we suppose, they are the Anastasi Indians. What else was going on in the world during this time? Well as the Indians were leaving there was another civilization flourishing in Thailand and the Thais people had built many city-states.

http://galileo.gits.net.th/www.thaimain.org/en/intro/history.html .

Of course in Italy and Europe they were dealing with the Bubonic Plague. Droughts can cause plagues;

http://www.huttoncommentaries.com/ECNews/SolarHeats/Pisces-AquarianHeatsDroughtsPlagues.htm

and so did the Indians fight over resources and simultaneously had to deal with plagues of the day. We know from El Nino that insects can catch a ride across the Pacific on the jet stream. Did issues such as this add to the problems along with fires, which forced hot air into the air above, ten thousand feet send it into the jet stream and across the ocean? With increased solar activity this is relatively possible and we already know that fires in Russia and China and a Volcano in the Pacific Rim could force debris and insects that would travel with the smoke across the globe. Also dust storms have recently had clouds, which have traveled, twice around the world. As well as the Gulf War sending smoke around the world and changing the atmospheric weather patterns. We know increased electromagnetic energy from solar activity could also cause changes in the ionosphere that changes weather for as many as five or more years. We have recently experienced all of this in the past tow decades.

Now we may not have realized it before, but now with GeoSats I through VII, we have learned more about he weather and its over all effect on our planet and the species and eco-systems in the land, air and sea. Now we know from fallen trees, which have fossilized an estimation of the weather back then. It appears that perhaps we may have accomplished a complete defense system to prevent a repeat of the former issues that mankind had to deal with. For instance air-conditioning, de-salting and the CDC. As far as fighting over resources and killing our fellow species members, apparently genetics has not moved as fast or advanced as much as the innovations which have propelled us to fight these issues. Now we seed the clouds, build barriers, sewer treatment plants, modify foods, use pesticides and fight pathogens, viruses and carefully discharge waste to prevent diseases. I must say if you stand back and look at how far we have come. It is quite impressive.

Now then we see the same signs of the past civilizations, their longevity and their goals. In modern time we saw Hitler proclaim the Third Reich to last some 1000 years. It is possible to create a culture that could accomplish this. It had been done before with the Chinese Dynasties, Egyptians, etc. If you look at England they are well on their way. We are young in the US, but we have really come a along way fast. Are we paying attention to the past and the cycles and flows? Are we kidding ourselves as to resources? Is the rest of the world kidding them selves? Places like Africa where a woman is not considered worthy in her culture unless she has no less than five children living. This is tough since the mortality rate is five to one living, therefore they need to have twenty kids to get five and yet there are not the natural resources or basic infrastructure to support all those children.

When I talk about Basic infrastructure, I mean such things as in sewer treatment plants, water supplies and food shelter and clothing, which are very inefficient in Africa. I suggest Virus Hunters of The CDC a great book to explain my point here. Are not paying attention to the most obvious challenges on living on the surface of a planet which is not only quite hostile, but also goes through cycles which make it difficult to habitat. In the US we have evolved our lifestyles and infrastructures to over come these cycles and trends. We are still caught off guard from linear decision making from time to time from politicians and short term thinking special interest groups pulling their strings using such form as a unit of trade or networked group of voters. However usually decisions, which are the worst for our future come from linear decisions which do not take into account the future or known cycles so that our most important projects take into account those issues we must face in future periods, some beyond our own naturals lives. Luckily our innovations have out paced our stupidity. And since free flow thought is still allowed for the most part and only stifled occasionally we all able to use the known clich; Necessity is the mother of all inventions, to bail us out. This maybe true yet it makes no sense to drive towards a hypothetical point C, when the direct route to B from A is direct (this may not be a straight line).

I submit to you that the issues which have caused Indian Civilizations to fall are the same issues we see today as we attempt to feed more people, who use more resources and often waste that which they use. Growing populations are good for those cultures immersed in trade and using a common currency or unit of trade. We know that declining populations such as the mass exodus in the California bay area, due to miss management by Gray Davis will lead to an accelerated decay as maintenance of infrastructure will not be meeting the lessened flow of dollars in income from taxes. When we look at the zero growth rate of Japan we see a fate, which will befall many European Nations and eventually our population in the United States. The only way out of this is in the next 75 years we will need to change the currency to include payments or vouchers for helping the common good, since we will be over producing with less due to technology, robots and decreased consumption as populations get older.

If we look at Germany with 19% unemployment and taxes of over 70% you can see that free health care is not free at all, as a matter of fact it is nearly 5-6 times the cost as a free market provides such as in the US. With trade down in ancient civilization times as growers could only grow enough to eat and water resources ran out, starving armies grew like starving domestic dogs travel in packs where there is no animal control and they are hungry. Armies can rape and pillage and thus the spoils of war are a way to survive. When Anarchy exists due to a breaking down of civilization, you have turmoil. Which seems to be exactly what happened to the Indians, as we also saw in other times, when people signed up for armies because it meant they could eat if they fought.

When you compound droughts, fires which torch the fields of corn and wheat, which is used to feed your people and animals which bring you everything else with the destruction of wars from your own species. Then you either fight to live, or you die, or you give up and move away. This appears to be either all or part of the factors which led the Indians to leave such places as Mesa Verde:

http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.mesa-verde.2.html

or Canyon de Chelly;

http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_cdc_main.html

Why would you leave if you had adequate defense and plentiful water? You would not, and I believe in the end they had neither. Why would you leave paradise unless you had too? The Incas were obviously not stupid people.

I hope this helps you think about our direction as a nation and how we go about our business throughout the world. Civilization includes so many more things than just a nice grouping of buildings and a base of population.