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There are hypotheses that the last mini ice age was caused by slaughtering native am populations in the 1500s, causing their crops to grow back. I’m not going

There are hypotheses that the last mini ice age was caused by slaughtering native am populations in the 1500s, causing their crops to grow back. I’m not going to suggest a slaughter obviously, but an extremely strong economic recession could bring us back to pre-1990 carbon levels (when they were balanced, as per IPCC).

graeme 8y ago
You're mixing up stocks and flows. Emissions are a flow. Co2 level is a stock. A recession will reduce the flow, but the stock will still increase. The hypothesized decrease of co2 in the 1500s from native american death was a decrease in the stock. Farmlands returned to wild states and sequestered carbon.
jellicle 8y ago
The IPCC certainly has never said that "pre-1990" carbon emissions were balanced. https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/full.html https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/full.html