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Was Genghis Khan history's greenest conqueror?
Mother Nature Network ^ | 24 January 2011 | Bryan Nelson

Posted on 01/24/2011 3:54:27 PM PST by Fractal Trader

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Earn Points What's this?

Comments (21) Email Facebook Twitter Stumble Digg Share Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion actually cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

So how exactly did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan did it the same way he built his empire — with a high body count.

Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.

In other words, one effect of Genghis Khan's unrelenting invasion was widespread reforestation, and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere.

"It's a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era," said Julia Pongratz, who headed the Carnegie Institution research project. "Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earth's landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture."

Pongratz's study, which was completed with the help of her Carnegie colleague Ken Caldeira, as well as with German colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, measured the carbon impact of a number of historical events besides just the Mongol invasion, including the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China's Ming Dynasty and the conquest of the Americas.

What all of these events share in common is the widespread return of forests after a period of massive depopulation, but the longevity of the Mongol invasion made it stand out as having the biggest impact on the world's climate.

"We found that during the short events such as the Black Death and the Ming Dynasty collapse, the forest re-growth wasn't enough to overcome the emissions from decaying material in the soil," explained Pongratz. "But during the longer-lasting ones like the Mongol invasion... there was enough time for the forests to re-grow and absorb significant amounts of carbon."

The 700 million tons of carbon absorbed as a result of the Mongol invasions roughly equals the amount of carbon global society now produces annually from gasoline.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; china; genghiskhan; genocide; globalwarminghoax; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; mongolmassmurderers; mongols; yurt; yurts
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1 posted on 01/24/2011 3:54:29 PM PST by Fractal Trader
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To: steelyourfaith; SunkenCiv

A GGG/Gobal Warming two-fer!


2 posted on 01/24/2011 3:55:30 PM PST by Fractal Trader
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To: Fractal Trader
So. The “green lobby” is in favor of another Geghis and another 40 million deaths?

But I'm sure that wouldn't be a high enough body count for the greens today.

I'm sure they advocated something on the order of...two or three hundred million.

3 posted on 01/24/2011 3:59:10 PM PST by mojito
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To: Fractal Trader

Genghis Kahn: Population Controller.


4 posted on 01/24/2011 4:00:22 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Fractal Trader

OK, read the excerpt.

Did the price of crack or acid come down recently? Or is this bath salts at work?


5 posted on 01/24/2011 4:04:06 PM PST by DBrow
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To: mojito

More like killing off 6,800,000,000 to save Gaia.


6 posted on 01/24/2011 4:05:09 PM PST by JimSEA
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To: Fractal Trader

“Was Genghis Khan history’s greenest conqueror?”

I don’t know....ask John F’in Kerry. He’s the Genjis Khan
expert.


7 posted on 01/24/2011 4:06:09 PM PST by Fireone (Liberals are just overschooled, undereducated, adult children.)
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To: Fractal Trader

is this a satire? I don’t think it’s supposed to be :(


8 posted on 01/24/2011 4:07:54 PM PST by MNDude
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To: Fractal Trader
The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan did it the same way he built his empire — with a high body count.

The author doesn't seem to have a very clear perception of environmentalists. A high body count is no problem for them.

9 posted on 01/24/2011 4:08:59 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Fractal Trader

Genghis Khan must have needed a lot of horses that produced a lot of carbon, especially running around a lot.


10 posted on 01/24/2011 4:10:12 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper
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To: MNDude

No. It is NOT a satire.


11 posted on 01/24/2011 4:10:55 PM PST by Little Ray (The Gods of the Copybook Heading, with terror and slaughter return!)
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To: Fractal Trader
Depopulation = Green.

Welp.

They finally admitted it.

They are simply Nazis, and we are ALL Jews.

12 posted on 01/24/2011 4:11:03 PM PST by Lazamataz (If Illegal Aliens are Undocumented Workers, than Thieves are Undocumented Shoppers.)
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To: Fractal Trader; FrPR; enough_idiocy; meyer; Normandy; Whenifhow; TenthAmendmentChampion; Clive; ...
Thanx Fractal Trader !

 




Beam me to Planet Gore !

13 posted on 01/24/2011 4:14:44 PM PST by steelyourfaith (ObamaCare Death Panels: a Final Solution to the looming Social Security crisis ?)
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To: Lazamataz

Can I be a Romanian Gypsy instead? The result will be the same but the outfits are cooler.


14 posted on 01/24/2011 4:15:41 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim (Jubtabulously We Thrive!)
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To: Fractal Trader

This theory makes Stalin a pretty good environmentalist (25 million killed). And we know that the Greens admire and respect him.


15 posted on 01/24/2011 4:16:12 PM PST by mgpilot
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To: Fractal Trader

I’m hoping this qualifies as permission to create 40 million leftist martyrs for the cause.


16 posted on 01/24/2011 4:18:25 PM PST by Soothesayer (smallpox is not a person)
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To: Fireone

I’d give the title to his son and successor, Uggedai Qa Quan. During his reign the Mongols finished, and secured, the conquest of Northern China, conquered everything west of the Gobi as far as the Danube [including the Bulgar state, the Pontic steppe, the Russian principalities, Kiev, and Hungary]. They razed Krakow, torched Bohemia and Moravia, raided Vienna, and were moving toward Venice. They also conquered Afghanistan, Tibet, the eastern Balkans, and made Korea a vassal state. Not bad for eight years’ work.


17 posted on 01/24/2011 4:19:16 PM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Each man in the Mongol Army went into a campaign with at least five, and usually eight or more horses. Then there’s the camels used to haul supply carts [ditto yaks], and the camels used by each Tuman commander’s naccara drummer.


18 posted on 01/24/2011 4:21:23 PM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: Little Ray

Holy Cow that’s insane!!

Here’s what I don’t get about greenies. Who do they envision as their ultimate appreciator of their humanless green world? Some squid? A tree somewhere?


19 posted on 01/24/2011 4:21:29 PM PST by MNDude
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To: Fractal Trader

The Khan butchered millions of Muslims FYI. He knew that the best way to deal with this asinine culture was Total, Complete Annihilation...and he did much to that effect.


20 posted on 01/24/2011 4:22:54 PM PST by Longdriver
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