Research team suggests European Little Ice Age came about due to reforestation in New World

http://www.physorg.com ^ | 14 Oct 2011 | Bob Yirka

[Red Badger]

A team comprised of geological and environmental science researchers from Stanford University has been studying the impact that early European exploration had on the New World and have found evidence that they say suggests the European cold period from 1500 to 1750, commonly known as the Little Ice Age, was due to the rapid decline in native human populations shortly after early explorers arrived.

Following up on their paper published in 2008, the team has now brought their findings before the Geological Society of America. The researchers say that the population decrease, which came about due to the introduction of previously unknown diseases, led to the rapid reforestation of the Americas. This led to a sudden increase in the amount of carbon dioxide being pulled from the air, which meant the atmosphere wasn’t able to hold as much heat, which led to colder air covering Europe.

The team, led by visiting scholar Richard Nevle, came to this conclusion after analyzing charcoal remnants in soil and lake sediments left behind by early American inhabitants as they burned forests to make room for farmland. They found that starting approximately 500 years ago, the charcoal accumulations came to a virtual standstill, coinciding with the death of native peoples.

Nevle et al then got out their calculators and crunched the numbers. They estimate that for a population of some 40 to 80 million indigenous people, the total amount of deforested land would likely have amounted to something the size of California. And since most estimates suggest that close to 90 percent of the native peoples died or were killed after the Europeans arrived, that meant most of that land returned to forest. That many trees, they say, all of a sudden appearing, almost as if out of nowhere, could have resulted in a loss of some 2 to 17 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the air.

To further bolster their argument, they say that core samples taken from the ice in Antarctica have air bubbles in them that show a reduction of carbon dioxide by 6 to 10 parts per million between 1525 and the early 1600s.

Of course this isn’t concrete proof that humans caused the Little Ice Age, as others in the field point out. Events such as volcanic eruptions, solar flares or even colder ocean currents could also be at play. But so far, the evidence is certainly intriguing, pointing out that human activities, even those that are inadvertent, could be the cause of serious global climate changes.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My dad, born in 1906, was an Old China Hand, having worked for China National Airlines Company (owned by American Airlines at the time) in the 1930s. He later served in the Army Air Force as a C-46 Hump pilot in the C-B-I Campaign.
Although he passed away in 1966, he always believed that the Chinese would not remain Communist for more than a generation because of their trader/merchant nature.

[Sherman Logan]

Although he passed away in 1966, he always believed that the Chinese would not remain Communist for more than a generation because of their trader/merchant nature.

What is so interesting is the Chinese have spent almost their entire history trying to squash this trader/merchant nature.

The mandarins were just about as opposed to businessmen as the commies.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Mandarins were early Democrats.

[Mr. Lucky]

Yes, but what about all of those slash and burn farms that Eurpoeans found when they arrived in America? How do you explain them?

[Hiddigeigei]

Studying Chinese history at Columbia back in the 1950s, I learned that the Chinese built huge sailing junks an sent an expedition to the coast of Africa commanded by an imperial eunuch.

Some of the vessels were said to be over 400 feet long and 150 feet wide.
The mandarins (bureaucrats), in traditional opposition to eunuch influence, took over and closed the borders of China after the Emperor’s death.

There is a controversial book by Gavin Menzies (an exBritish submariner) 1434 The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance which, using 15th Century European and Chinese maps, documents that the fleet circumnavigated the globe. Very few of the ships managed to return. Menzies discusses the navigation methods used at length.
A New York Times article discusses the theory: A New Theory Puts Chinese Fleet Ahead of Columbus

[Sherman Logan]

Actually, there’s something to that.

The mandarins, many of those who weren’t utterly corrupt, dealt in theories of abstract morality quite unbothered by actual consequences of their policies.

They were focused on the world as it should be, and not particularly interested in the world as it actually is.

[denydenydeny]

Of course this isn’t concrete proof that humans caused the Little Ice Age

LOL, ya think? This is totally specious, as the Little Ice Age started well before 1500.

[Redmen4ever]

The bubonic plague didn’t kill off 90 percent of the Europeans. It is believed that it killed off about one-third. Those who survived, by reason of having survived, developed resistance. There is no reason to think the native peoples of North America would have fared differently than those of Europe to the introduction of such a dread disease.

In the Aztec and Incan Empires, sickness did indeed help the Conquistadors, but local populations were not reduced by 90 percent. Instead, in the Aztec Empire, the Conquistadors secured the help of the oppressed peoples of the empire to overthrow their tyrannical and hated rulers. In the Incan Empire, the secret weapon of the Conquistador was the horse, that enabled a small number of invaders to outpace the runners of the Incan defense system, take their capital city by surprise, and force their ruler to surrender.

The claim that the population of what became the U.S. was about 90 million at the time of Columbus is utterly ridiculous. Without cities, roads, without metal tools or work animals, without a written language, marketplaces, or money (other than a few limited marketplaces and trinket money), there is no way a large number of humans could have survived.

People who are so absolutely ignorant of economics as to make such ridiculous anthropological claims are not scientists. They are quacks.

Yes, there is archeological evidence of several large Indian towns, and there were some Indian trails useful for inter-regional commerce. But, if these are evidence of anything, it is of the severe limitations of the native peoples of this land.

The actual history of the native peoples of this hemisphere is dishonored by such ideologically-oriented re-writing. Let’s just try to let the actual facts of history speak for themselves, instead of using an odd fact here or there for political purposes.

[Red Badger]

I believe there were maybe 10 million total of all native Americans in what is now the US and Canada. No census was ever taken, but no large settlements of any size like a city were evident in the North American continent at the time of Columbus up until the Pilgrims. Had there been anywhere near 90 million, history would have been much different........

[RobbyS]

Decimation means at least 10%.

[CodeToad]

“40 to 80 million indigenous people”

Yeah, right. Like the New World had that many people.

[mtg]

Columbus arrives in 1492. The Little Ice Age begins approximately 8 years later. So, in 8 years 70 million people die and the land they previously farmed is reforested enough that it aborbs amounts of carbon which are adequately large to cool the earth and kick off the Little Ice Age.

Actually, that estimation of 70-80 million people is for all the Americas prior to 1500. The highest estimate I've seen for just North America (at the time of Columbus coming to America) is 10-12 million [18 million at the very tops]. Some have even estimated that the Indian population in 1500 for North America to be 5 million or less.

So in that 8 years, the Europeans would had to have also been responsible for the deaths of 80-90% of Central and South Americans. Talk about total genocide in a short period of time. I think these scientists need to find a new line of work.

[Redmen4ever]

I have seen estimates from 500,000 to several million. 10 million doesn’t sound too off the the charts. But, bear in mind that the population of England and Wales, at the time of the census of 1801, was only 8.9 million; and, they had metal tools and work animals. People have no idea how hard life was before the industrial revolution in Europe; nor, how much harder is was before the discovery of metal working and the domestication of work animals.

[norwaypinesavage]

"It belongs in an education major’s grad thesis."

I was going to argue that it belongs in a third graders story report, but hey, what's the difference.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Early mound builders in the continental US and their like in Central and South America had only stone tools and no draft animals, yet built massive structures in a relatively short period of time"

You mean "We don't know how they did it, so that means there were really a lot of them"? I don't buy the premise.

[roamer_1]

What a remarkably high pile of sophisticated horse sh*t.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Which sucks up more CO2 and puts out more O2? An acre of trees or an acre of grass land."

The lore is an acre of trees. I don't buy the lore. My bet is that if you calculated the square inches of chlorophyll exposed to the sun, you would find little difference.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger.

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[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Red Badger. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You mean, ignorant 5 foot tall Indians couldn’t possibly have built anything so complex. Must’ve been visiting space aliens.