[Sherman Logan]

It’s pretty well known that most primitive peoples set fire to the forests on a regular basis, and it wasn’t primarily for agricultural purposes.

The book 1491 shows how Indians in the Americas had been routinely burning the land for over ten thousand years, to the extent that a different ecology had developed. When this routine burning was withdrawn as a result of the 95% die-off in Indian populations during the 16th century caused by the merging of the American and Afro-Eurasian disease ecologies, massive changes occurred to the environment of the Americas.

The “natural wilderness” seen in most areas by the first white explorers had little in common with what had existed for many thousands of years before this die-off.

[nomorelurker]

Be carefull there. You have just stated a human caused event. It may have have nothing to do with global warming but others might not see it that way.

don't you know the Amerindians lived in a pristine paradise unspoiled. SARC

[Reeses]

Thanks for bringing that up about the American Indians using fire so much. I found this website that suggests a list of reasons: http://www.wildlandfire.com/docs/biblio_indianfire.htm Surprisingly, one of the reasons was weather control, a technology we've forgotten about. I noticed after a hot summer wildfire in Southern California the smoke caused overcast clouds that cooled a huge swath of the LA area. It was about 15 degrees cooler than before the fire. The savings in air conditioning costs might have more than offset any damage costs from the fire.