Final answer:
The author suggests that deforestation disrupted the climate by altering rainfall patterns and reducing biodiversity, leading to challenges in agriculture for the Maya. As a result, these environmental changes contributed to the Maya's abandonment of the peninsula.
Step-by-step explanation:
The author draws a connection between deforestation and the Maya's abandonment of the peninsula by highlighting that deforestation disrupted the climate, causing agricultural challenges for the Maya. Extensive deforestation, driven by the need for land for agriculture and other uses, led to changes in local climates—specifically, making them warmer and drier. This disruption in climate had a significant impact on rainfall patterns, which are crucial for successful agriculture, and also affected the biodiversity of the area, leading to a decline in resources available to the Maya civilization.
Research specific to Central America demonstrates that the lack of vegetation can lead to drastic reductions in rainfall, with air passing over lush forests producing significantly more rain than air over deforested regions. These changes influenced agricultural productivity and could exacerbate the already changing climate. The Maya's growing populations required considerable agricultural yields, which made them more vulnerable to variations in climate or bad harvests caused by crop diseases, leading to pressures that may have contributed to their eventual departure from the region.