We can see that the last glacial period ended 12-10K years ago. Interestingly enough, this also appears to coincide with the rise of large human civilisations.
My question is: What caused the earth's climate to stabilise ~10 thousand years ago?
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2$\begingroup$ You need to examine the assumption that it "stabilized". Rather (and simplistically, of course), the Milankovitch cycle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles moved from a stable Ice Age regime to an interglacial one. $\endgroup$– jamesqfJan 27, 2016 at 18:54
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$\begingroup$ "Interestingly enough": yes, but pretty obvious and known :-) $\endgroup$– Fabrice NEYRETFeb 21, 2016 at 1:33
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$\begingroup$ @jamesqf: You may as well convert that into an answer. $\endgroup$– naught101Feb 25, 2016 at 1:02
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$\begingroup$ " this also appears to coincide with the rise of large human civilisations" this is investigated in this book I think astore.amazon.com/brianfaganc03-20/detail/0465022820 read the first amazon review. No endorsement, I havent read it. $\endgroup$– martMar 7, 2016 at 12:00
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You need to examine the assumption that it "stabilized". Rather (and simplistically, of course), the Milankovitch cycle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles moved from a stable Ice Age regime to an interglacial one. Absent the current human interference, it would (IIRC, anyway) continue the interglacial for some tens of thousands of years, before entering another ice age.
Nor does the end of the last Ice Age really correlate with the rise of large civilizations, since there was about a 5-6K year gap. IOW, roughly as long from the end of the Ice Age to the first civilizations, as from them to the present.
