Journey back to ancient Greece to uncover how the winds of change built an empire. Plus, discover the surprising connections between ancient battles and the shaping of modern America.
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00:00Welcome to Invisible Iceberg. Today we journey back to ancient Greece to uncover how the winds of change built an empire.
00:13Plus, discover the surprising connections between ancient battles and the shaping of modern America.
00:20And we dive into the fascinating mechanics behind the sea breeze.
00:31Today we're exploring the connection of the weather and the people of ancient Greece.
00:38In fact, the word meteorology has its roots there.
00:42As a Mediterranean country relying on the seas for survival, the Greeks had a deep understanding of the weather, particularly the air and winds.
00:51In 480 BC, this knowledge was pivotal in saving the Greek Empire from an early demise.
00:58This is just one of the fascinating stories in the book, Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History.
01:05Joining us to talk more about how the Greeks used their insight into the weather is ACUEA, the founder and executive chairman and author of the book,
01:12Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers.
01:17Good to be with you, Dr. Joel. Thanks for joining us here.
01:20My pleasure.
01:21Let's talk first about the Greek Empire and when did the classical empire predominate?
01:28300 to 500 BC, so a long time ago, 2,500 years ago.
01:34But it was very important in the history of mankind and in so many ways set the stage for what is now the United States.
01:44They had a very good understanding, I understand, of the weather and especially wind where they were located.
01:54All the Mediterranean countries were dependent for their prosperity on trade and ultimately the sea currents and the weather.
02:06Because as we know, over the water, the storms and harsh winds can be destructive if they're not prepared for them.
02:15So the Greeks invented the word meteorology and the basis of climatology.
02:22So they had understanding of that and as well as an understanding of the variations in the winds.
02:29The first ones to use that was a certain matter of prediction.
02:33So in 480 BC, it was the Persian king Xerxes that decided that he wanted to take over the Greek Empire.
02:42Let's talk first, before we get into battle, let's talk about the sheer size of his army.
02:49Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
02:50So the population of the world at that time, the entire world, estimated about 100 million people.
02:56And about 15 to 20 million of those people were in the Americas.
03:02And so even in that whole area, 80 million including Asia and so on.
03:07So in that particular area, 250,000 man army.
03:13Think of it, the world's population, 100 million.
03:16So you're talking about one quarter or 1% of the entire world's population.
03:21And a significant many percent of the people alive in that part of the world in this Persian army with over a thousand ships.
03:31And it was so powerful that he believed just showing up and letting them know he's coming for them,
03:39they would just surrender because it would be a huge loss of life.
03:43Let's talk about the battle now between the Persians and the Greeks.
03:47Let's talk about the strategy as the Persians thought that perhaps the Greeks would just surrender.
03:54They did, but they weren't taking any chances.
03:57They had this huge army, this huge armada of ships, and they were coming.
04:01The Greeks knew they were coming because that was their strategy, to show such overwhelming force.
04:06Who would possibly challenge them?
04:08They thought they would walk in and take over.
04:10But what the Greeks knew about, very important, is the sea breeze and the land breeze.
04:16And as meteorologists, we understand that, and it's pretty easy to explain.
04:21So the water doesn't vary that much, water temperature from day to night.
04:26So during the day, the land is heated up.
04:29And so, as we know, hot air is lighter than cooler air, and so it rises.
04:34And as it rises, there's a vacuum, so the cool air from the water comes in, and that's known as a sea breeze.
04:42And anybody who's been at the coast has often experienced that.
04:46In mid-afternoon, sometimes it can set in as early as 11 a.m. or noon.
04:52At night, you have the opposite effect.
04:55The land cools down, and so the water is warmer, and so there's a breeze from the land outward.
05:04So using this cycle, which we're very familiar with, to the Greeks,
05:09and they knew the details along each shoreline,
05:12they took advantage of that fact in their strategy to defeat the Persians.
05:17They moved north, according to the book of the Samalis Islands,
05:22between Piraeus and the Salamis Islands, and forced them into this narrow channel.
05:30And that's how they were defeated.
05:32Well, partly.
05:33So the Greeks sort of telegraphed by letting the Persians intercept their plans
05:40so that they would chase the Greeks, where they thought they were going,
05:45into this narrow channel, which was less than a mile wide.
05:49So this huge armada of ships is coming this way,
05:53and maybe the Persians didn't know all the details of their land and so on,
05:57at just the time that the wind would come and cause—
06:03and remember, the Persian ships were tall, and the Greek ships were small.
06:08So the big masks and so on, the wind would take it, cause chaos on the leading ships,
06:14and they crashed into each other, and it was a small isthmus, only less than a mile wide.
06:19But the ships behind that were sailing didn't know.
06:22There was not communications like there is today.
06:26And so these ships crashing to each other and causing chaos,
06:31all the other ships then continued to go forward and crash, and it was a mess.
06:36So the Persian army and the navy was completely befuddled.
06:41They lost one-third of their ships, a lot of their men,
06:45and they had no choice but to retreat, and the Greeks had won.
06:49Just a fascinating story, Dr. Myers. Thanks for sharing it.
06:52My pleasure.
06:53Here with more perspective on the connection between weather and the Greek Empire is Barry Strauss.
06:59He's an author, historian, and a professor of history at Cornell University,
07:05as well as visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.
07:10Thanks so much for joining us today, sir.
07:13You're welcome. It's great to be here.
07:15What role did the Greeks have in the history of weather?
07:20They played a very important role in the history of weather.
07:23Early Greek thinkers speculated about weather and what the nature of the universe was.
07:28Was it air? Was it ice? Was it water? Was it fire?
07:32And their thoughts became much more sophisticated in the work of Aristotle,
07:37who wrote this famous book about weather called Meteorology,
07:40where he talks about the weather, he talks about earthquakes, he talks about natural phenomena.
07:45He's basing it on the thought of the Greeks and also the earlier civilizations in Babylonia and Mesopotamia and Egypt.
07:53How did they contribute to the development of meteorology and the knowledge of climate?
08:00Well, I would say through the fact that they approached it in a very analytical manner.
08:08They left the gods out of it.
08:11And so they brought the knowledge of weather to a higher level than it had been previously.
08:18And why did Persia attack Greece in 480 B.C.?
08:23Well, Persia attacked Greece in 480 B.C. in one sense because it was there.
08:29Persia was an empire. It was a conquering empire. It liked to expand.
08:34But also because the Greeks, in what is nowadays the country of Greece,
08:39had tried to liberate the Greek cities on the west coast of what is now Turkey.
08:44Those cities were under Persian rule. They rebelled against the Persian Empire.
08:49The Athenians in particular tried to help them against the Persians, but they failed.
08:54And the Persians were able to put down their rebellion.
08:56So they wanted revenge on the Greeks.
08:58And they wanted to make sure the Greeks could never interfere in Persian affairs again.
09:03How did the contributions of the Greek Empire lead to the formation of the Roman Empire?
09:10Well, the Romans learned from the Greeks.
09:14They learned from the Greek city-states.
09:16They learned from their laws, from their thought, from their culture, from their citizenship.
09:23But they also learned from their imperialism.
09:26Alexander the Great, the most famous Greek speaker, to conquer an empire.
09:31He and his successors built an empire that prided itself on its ability to absorb part of the local population
09:39and make them work for them to become, for example, soldiers in their armies.
09:44The Romans learned from their Greek predecessors how to do this.
09:49And how are we still influenced today by the advancements from the Greek civilization?
09:55We're influenced by the Greeks in many ways.
09:58The very notion of citizenship, and for that matter of politics, which is a Greek word, comes from the Greeks.
10:04We get our notion of democracy and a constitutional republic from the Greeks.
10:10Some of our fundamental cultural ideals, above all philosophy, but also tragedy, comedy, and history.
10:18These come from the Greeks as well.
10:21Some of our basic notions of law and justice are also deeply influenced by the Greeks.
10:27Barry Strauss, author, historian, professor at Cornell University, and visiting fellow at Stanford.
10:34Thanks again for joining us today.
10:37My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
10:39Still to come, we dive into the fascinating mechanics behind the sea breeze.
10:44But next, we explore how ancient battles played a role in shaping America today.
11:04Welcome back to Invisible Iceberg. I'm Bernie Raynaud.
11:06We're back with Akiva, the founder and executive chairman and author of the book, Invisible Iceberg,
11:11When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers.
11:15We just went over a pivotal battle between the Greeks and the Persians,
11:21where weather was such an important factor, and basically the X factor in determining that battle.
11:29Absolutely.
11:30If you look at the numbers, the sheer numbers of the Persian navy and all the forces and everything they mustered,
11:38you would say that if it was a football game, the Greeks had a 1% chance maybe of winning.
11:44But the Greeks won because of their superior knowledge of the winds
11:49and using that in a strategy to defeat this army and navy that thought they would just walk in
11:56and should have, in terms of might, taken over.
11:59But it shows the importance of weather, knowledge and strategy, and using weather to your advantage.
12:07And that's always fascinated me.
12:09Long before I wrote the book, even when I was a teenager, and that's part of the reason I build AccuWeather,
12:15because that's what we do.
12:17We help businesses and companies, even football coaches, be prepared for weather
12:22and have an advantage that other people don't have.
12:26And sometimes it translates into millions of dollars in savings or benefit for businesses and companies.
12:32In this case, it saved the Greek empire and set the stage for much of the civilization
12:39and the form of government we enjoy in the United States today.
12:43Well, let's talk about that.
12:44How important was that battle to the future?
12:48Well, look at what the Greeks developed.
12:51It was a very enlightened society.
12:53Sometimes it doesn't get the credit.
12:56We talk about the Romans and what our civilization came about, the republic and such.
13:01But really, the Romans took a lot from the Greeks.
13:04And when you look at what they did in enlightenment in terms of mathematics and science and culture
13:10and architecture and form of government, the first republic and freedom for individuals and so many things.
13:17So this was important, very important that the Greek empire and their ideas survive and continue to thrive
13:24in terms of setting the stage for what we have in the United States today and other democracies.
13:29The word democracy came from the Greeks.
13:32So it was very important.
13:34And it was, as I said, if you look at it on paper, it was a one percent chance the Greeks would survive.
13:40But their superior knowledge of science, in this case, the weather and the sea breeze,
13:45made all the difference in the world for some of the things that we enjoy today.
13:49Well, you had mentioned the United States.
13:51I want to touch on that again, how important or how much of some of the way in which the Greek ran their government
14:01we use today or some of the ideas and concepts.
14:04Absolutely.
14:05They came up with some of these ideas, which then the Romans adopted and were passed on and evolved in England
14:12and the UK over a century.
14:15This is twenty five hundred years ago.
14:18And the basic concepts that they developed from nothing.
14:23You know, there's no evidence of just a lot of creative thought.
14:27And clearly they had the prosperity to do so.
14:32It was a capitalistic system, trade and so on.
14:35And it gave them the prosperity to develop of the spare time of the intelligent people to develop all these concepts,
14:45which then evolved in future civilization, was saved by the Romans and so on,
14:51and lead to the continue of involvement that we experience in the United States today.
14:57When you look back at their knowledge and the lack of tools that they had,
15:01how impressed are you that they had such a unique understanding how the weather and wind would work in their area
15:08and how they used it to their advantage?
15:11Well, part of their prosperity came about because of their knowledge of sea currents and the weather.
15:18And in this case, winning this battle against overwhelming odds.
15:23And they've used it to their advantage in trade and shipping and all of that.
15:29So knowledge is power. And I certainly believe in that.
15:33And that's why scientific progress and knowledge and having superior knowledge of weather,
15:39even today, we see the companies we serve translates over time to billions of dollars in savings and reduce losses for companies.
15:48So knowledge is power and scientific knowledge forms the basis of that.
15:54So the Persians did not appreciate how important the weather can be during your time here at AccuWeather.
16:04And when you built the business, was that a message that you really had to try to sell?
16:10Absolutely. We're doing it all the time.
16:12You know, a lot of people think of weather as a commodity, but weather forecasts are not a commodity.
16:18AccuWeather, it's not only the accuracy of the forecast, but communicating it effectively.
16:23So the decision maker, whether it's a football coach, whether it's an operations person at a company in marketing or sales,
16:32or how would they use it to get ahead of the competition and use insight and knowledge and weather intelligence to make more sales and to reduce losses?
16:43And that's what fascinates me. And that's what AccuWeather does for thousands of companies every day.
16:48And the public benefits from that in the forecast, the AccuWeather forecasts that are available on AccuWeather.com and in the AccuWeather app.
16:56So the weather is just as important today as it was thousands and thousands of years ago.
17:02In some way, it's more important because we can be even more insightful.
17:08But the details matter. And we saw it there, using the weather in a strategic way to win a battle that when you looked at it on paper, the Greeks had maybe a 1 percent chance of winning.
17:21Just another fascinating story about how weather and climate shaped history.
17:26I want to thank AccuWeather founder and executive chairman and author of the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joe Myers, for joining us today.
17:36My pleasure, Bernie.
17:37Next, the fascinating mechanics behind the sea breeze.
17:43Welcome back to Invisible Iceberg. I'm Bernie Raynaud.
17:46A sea breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water to the surface of the Earth.
17:53It's a wind that blows from a large body of water to the surface of the Earth.
17:58It's a wind that blows from a large body of water to the surface of the Earth.
18:04Welcome back to Invisible Iceberg. I'm Bernie Raynaud.
18:07A sea breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward a landmass.
18:13The mechanics of the sea breeze begin with a few basic meteorological concepts.
18:18One, wind is generated by the difference in pressure.
18:21Two, the direction of the wind always moves from higher to lower pressure.
18:26And three, large bodies of water heat and cool much slower than land, naturally producing a temperature or pressure difference over a small area.
18:35Now, sea breeze normally starts in the morning a few hours after sunrise when the solar radiation heats the boundary layer over the land, while the water temperature remains nearly steady.
18:45This temperature difference between the land and the water results in a significant small-scale pressure gradient with lower pressure on land compared to the water.
18:54The sea breeze is formed as the air moves from higher to lower pressure.
18:58On many tropical and subtropical coastal regions, the sea breeze is a regular phenomenon throughout the year,
19:05while in cooler regions, the sea breeze is a common feature during the spring and summer when the temperature difference between the land and sea is at its maximum.
19:14Sea breezes can not only impact temperature but weather. Since there is convergence along it, precipitation can occur.
19:22An example of this is the sea and gulf breeze that ignites daily thunderstorms in Florida during the summer months.
19:29I want to thank Acuia, the founder and executive chairman and author of the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers, for joining us today.
19:38For more information and get your copy of the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, go to InvisibleIceberg.com.
19:47And a big thanks to all of you for watching.
19:50If you have any questions or comments, send us an email at questions at accuweather.com.
19:56And we look forward to seeing you next time.