Is the Amazon rainforest MAN-MADE? At least 8 MILLION humans may have lived and farmed the [tr]

UK Daily Mail ^ | July 24, 2015 | Richard Gray

[C19fan]

It is often held aloft by environmental campaign groups as an example of one of the last remaining regions of unspoiled habitat left in the world. But instead of being a pristine rainforest untouched by human hands, the Amazon appears to have been profoundly shaped by mankind. An international team of researchers have published evidence that suggests the Amazon was once home to millions of people who lived and farmed in the area now covered by trees.

[C19fan]

The whole idea of the Native people of the Americas living in harmony with nature until the Europeans came is pure bunk. A lot of research has come out of how native people transformed the ecology of the Americas. I read about how the Amazons were once home to millions of people. Some believe it was mosquitoes that carried malaria being brought across the Atlantic from Europe and Africa that wiped out this Amazon based culture/civilization.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This theory was the subject of a book some years ago.
I think it was titled “1491.”

[arthurus]

1491-short review and

The book.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Then, according to the enviro-nazis, we should do everything in our power to return it to its previous condition.

[vladimir998]

Yes, you’re right. The theory blew me away at the time and seems to be gathering some steam with this new evidence.

[P.O.E.]

I seem to vaguely remember some article years ago about planes detecting straight-lined formations under the jungle. I’ll have to see if I can find it.

[Arm_Bears]

1491 was an interesting read.

I noted that it shot down a lot of the “noble red man living in harmony with nature and the earth” and, accordingly, wondered how it ever got published.

[headstamp 2]

But according to PBS the ARF is at least eleventy billion years old.

[GreyFriar]

Obviously “we” can blame the Christian God for creating man in his envrionmental destroying image. Or so the Gaia worshipers will claim...which will be saying that the God they don’t believe in actually created the earth.

And I as a Christian am not in agreement with my sarcastic words I’m putting in the mouth of honest Gaia worshipers, who probably believe what I’m saying.

[BitWielder1]

The notion of "preserving" something that is dynamic and ever changing in its nature is problematic indeed.
Rivers turn into swamps, then wetlands, meadows and forests while the river took some other path and the cycle repeats elsewhere.
When humans are part of the process it becomes even more of a problem for enviros.
The ecology of pastures for example are heavily dependent on the farmer doing his thing every year.
If you try to freeze it in time by stopping all human activity it becomes something else.

[Red Badger]

A DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dna-search-first-
americans-links-amazon-indigenous-australians-180955976/?no-ist

[Red Badger]

PinGGG!...................

[Paladin2]

Agenda 21 was implemented way before its current incarnation.

May the piranha consume the UN.

[cld51860]

That was a fascinating book.

[JoeProBono]

[cripplecreek]

The fact that there were more people there in the past doesn’t equate to a man made forest.

The thin infertile forest soil doesn’t lend itself to large scale farming very well. Its why the natives practice slash and burn farming. The 6 inches of fertile topsoil is worn out in a few years so they let the forest reclaim the land and move on to clear more land.

Obviously they can farm on a large scale today but its only due to modern farming methods that include constant soil maintenance. Its like trying to farm in southern California without irrigation.

[zek157]

The book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus discusses this extensively.

[freefdny]

I enjoyed both 1491 and the sequel 1493. The author does start doing back flips to fight the obvious conclusion that the natives may not have been as benign to the environment as the Al Gorites would like to think. They were humans they used technology to defeat enemies, grow crops and in general survive. Clear cut burns,water diversion and other tactics don’t fit into the modern liberals view of the world back then. And then he quoted Ward Churchill and I knew where he was coming from.

[TalonDJ]

Didn’t you read 1491?

[Arm_Bears]

I’ve been slogging through 1493.

Don’t find it quite as enjoyable as 1491—and the author’s politics taint the narrative a bit more—but still a lot of info that is omitted in high school/college presentations of the subject.