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I still feel like our mass burning/cutting down of forests for use in agriculture is the real start of the Anthropocene, which arguably began on a global scale
by gph 9y ago
I still feel like our mass burning/cutting down of forests for use in agriculture is the real start of the Anthropocene, which arguably began on a global scale thousands of years ago. It certainly made a large impact on the environment and climate, undoubtedly more than any other single species during that time.
- wiz21c 9y agoWhat you write seems so obvious. We definitely cut & burnt a lot of wood, but we were not that many earthlings... So have you any source for what you say ? I'm genuinely interested.
- Naga 9y agoThere's some research that has been done into the Little Ice Age being caused by the reforestation of the Americas after disease wiped out the populations: https://phys.org/news/2011-10-team-european-ice-age-due.html https://phys.org/news/2011-10-team-european-ice-age-due.html.
- llccbb 9y agoBill Ruddiman has been the most public face pushing for a ~7000 year Anthropocene. Sadly this paper[0] remains behind a paywall and I can't find my local version. It is really the best work on the early Anthropocene hypothesis. [0] https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-earth-050212-123944 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-earth-...