Early Humans Thrived in Changing Climates—But It Wasn’t Easy

What past climate change reveals about human resilience

Raise your hand if you can’t wait to face another hardship so that you can thrive from adversity and be reborn from your ashes!

I can imagine nobody’s raising their hands. 

We hear it time and time again, and we know it to be true. Three years ago, I was pregnant with my second child when I put the numbers together: after the new addition to the family arrived, our academic salaries wouldn’t cover our most basic expenses, whether one of us quit our jobs or not. We had to change something. 

Saying goodbye to my academic lifestyle involved tears, fears, and resentment. For a while, I lost myself, unable to identify who I was or my life’s call. Adding job and financial insecurity to the equation only made it harder. 

Three years later, though, I’m living the best years of my life. I have a house, a job, and a side business that fulfills me, and I even launched a course teaching others how I did it! 

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Analyzing the situation, I can’t help but ask myself: would I have made it this far if it wasn’t for the hardship times? Did I need them to survive?

As I mentioned, nobody wants hardship so that they can grow, but we can’t deny that if it doesn’t kill you, hardship can move you to new places you couldn’t even imagine before. 

But let’s shift the conversation to something I’m very passionate about: Climate Change. The way things are progressing, we will be experiencing major changes in our climate and environment. These changes will force humans to rethink how we live and survive on Earth. 

We also know that, while never this fast, humans have experienced other climatic shifts. What can we learn from these? Today’s story has something important to say about this. 

Imagine a world where forests transformed into deserts and greenery gave way to open plains and savannahs. Well, this has actually happened many times during Earth’s history. For the story we are covering today, these changes didn’t happen overnight but over tens of thousands of years during the mid-Pleistocene era. 

This shift, known as the mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition (MPT), wasn’t just about landscapes; it altered the course of human evolution and migration.

A new study published in Nature Communications reveals how climate changes during the MPT, approximately 1.25 to 0.7 million years ago, pushed early humans, or hominins, to adapt in ways that forever shaped our existence. 

The research, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of climatologists, archaeologists, and sociologists, explores how this climatic shift reshaped environments and influenced human dispersal across Eurasia.

But first, let’s look at what the authors did, shall we?

To understand these past shifts, researchers analyzed loess deposits (layers of fine, wind-blown sediment) across Central Asia, especially in northwest China. 

These deposits hold valuable clues about past climates, including information about precipitation levels and vegetation changes. Using high-resolution carbon isotope analysis, the team reconstructed climate patterns spanning millions of years. 

They then connected this data to archaeological findings and fossil records to paint a detailed picture of how humans adapted. A clear example of why we call this type of research multidisciplinary. Team effort at its purest!

And what did the results have to say?

Well, before the MPT, ice ages lasted about 40,000 years. After the transition, glacial periods stretched up to 100,000 years, bringing harsher and longer-lasting conditions. 

This shift led to widespread aridification, turning forests into grasslands, deserts, and loess plains. Rainfall plummeted, vegetation changed drastically, and ecosystems transformed. A good example of widespread change, for sure. 

Interestingly, the study shows that these changes created both challenges and opportunities for early humans. With reduced forest cover and increasing aridity, hominins had to migrate to areas with better resources or rethink how they lived. 

Rivers, like the Yellow River, became lifelines, offering freshwater and fertile floodplains that supported survival. “Major changes to rivers… likely provided much more fresh water, making survival easier,” the authors noted.

Isn’t this a clear example of how humans have been thriving from challenging situations for millennia? 

But let’s look a bit more into this pattern of adaptation and innovation.

The researchers note that surviving in these new landscapes required not only movement but also innovation. Open habitats and fewer forests meant early humans had to adapt their diets, hunting strategies, and tool-making techniques. 

As a result, the period saw the development of Acheulean tools, advanced handaxes, and other implements that enabled hominins to exploit their environments more effectively.

At the same time, the research also suggests that these environmental pressures may have encouraged human groups to spread further and interact with others, fostering cultural and technological exchanges. 

Just like it happens to us modern humans, the challenges of the time pushed hominins to become resourceful and resilient, qualities that would later define humanity’s journey.

No pain, no gain. 

And the million-dollar question: What can we learn from the past? Why does any of this matter now? 

While the MPT happened long before modern humans roamed the Earth, the story of adaptation to environmental change is timeless. Today, we face our own climate challenges, with shifting ecosystems and increasing aridity in some regions. 

This study reminds us of humanity’s capacity to adapt but also highlights the profound impact of environmental changes on survival and development. While it is true that facing a climatic catastrophe will force us to adapt, there will be those who perish, and the transition could take hundreds, if not thousands, of years. 

Is climate change something we should shrug off? Absolutely not; let’s remember that not everybody thrives from adversity; many lose their battles.

At least, understanding how early humans responded to climatic shifts can inspire modern strategies for resilience and adaptation. The landscapes may have changed, but the need to adapt remains a constant thread through history. One that only time will tell how we get through it.