Posted on 07/08/2025 6:44:20 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A new study published in the journal Science suggests that humans might have played a significant part in the sudden deforestation of rainforests from Central Africa. This work contradicts the prevailing view that the expansion of farming practices was the root cause as well as the increased incidence of long, severe dry spells.
Germain Bayon, a geochemist at the French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea in Plouzané, and his colleagues examined the weathering of sediment samples that were drawn from the mouth of the Congo River. Deforestation intensifies weathering; therefore the clay samples would provide a continuous record of the climate for the past 40,000 years.
The sediment cores revealed that 3,000 years ago, there was a complete decoupling between rainfall and the rate of weathering. Bayon says that this indicates that the climate alone could not be a factor to explain this deforestation.
The research team suggests that the Bantu-speaking people from present-day Nigeria and Cameroon, known to have emigrated across Central Africa 4,000 years ago, had an impact on the rainforest, since they cleared land for farming and iron smelting.
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
African villagers driving SUVs, 3000 years ago.
No, CLIMATE CHANGE!
Exactly what percolated in my mind. By removing trees they contributed to global warming also Less O2 production. Releasing CO2 into the atmosphere when burning. Horrors.
Paging Greta Thunberg. How dare you!
Like the Great Plains during the dust bowl, due to the almost complete destruction of the deep-rooted prairie grass for farming in a region with very few trees.
It was a multiple year drought.
😎
It seems obvious to me-and I don’t play a scientist on TV-more humans moving to the area cut down more trees to build shelters, fuel fires for cooking, smelting and other daily uses of wood, drought lasting several years-and humans not smart enough to know that trees don’t grow fast or well in a drought-and not at all when an area is clear-cut. A perfect storm that has taken place before in other areas of the world and still does wherever really clueless people live...
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