cnn.com — Ancient man may have started global warming through massive deforestation and burning that could have permanently altered the Earth's climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Aug 19, 2009 View in Crawl 4
alheithinnAug 19, 2009Submitter
I always knew it was those damn farmers!! :)
novenatorAug 19, 2009
Hmmm, intriguing concept, but I'm not sure I buy it. I know they claim that early farmers cleared 10x of what we do today, but with a population density so low back then, the effects of our species on the overall global system would have been negligible. I have no data to back this up, this is just speculation (based on my anthropology degree).
alheithinnAug 19, 2009Submitter
We do know the activities of humanity in the ancient world affected the environment and that can be seen in the ice caps. For example, we know that the Roman period saw a level of atmospheric pollution not to be reached again until the Industrial Revolution (see Sungmin Hong; Jean-Pierre Candelone; Clair C. Patterson; Claude F. Boutron “Greenland Ice Evidence of Hemispheric Lead Pollution Two Millennia Ago byGreek and Roman Civilizations,” Science, New Series, Vol. 265, No. 5180. (Sep. 23, 1994), pp. 1841-1843; cf. idem, “History of Ancient Copper Smelting Pollution During Roman and Medieval Times Recorded in Greenland Ice,” Science, New Series, Vol. 272, No. 5259. (Apr. 12, 1996), pp. 246-249).We also know that as early as the fourth century, Plato discussed the effects of deforestation (Critias III a-d). Hughes lists the Pagan writers who discussed the subject: Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Theophrastus, Strabo, Pliny, Livy. As Hughes observes, “classical authors noted deforestation that they believed to be widespread and severe.” (J. Donald Hughes, “How the Ancients Viewed Deforestation,” Journal of Field Archaeology 10 (1983), 435-445.)I was rather surprised that this article did not take note of these facts, which do go beyond anthropology degrees.
Closed AccountAug 19, 2009
Greenfyre in 5... 4... 3... oh, wait.
novenatorAug 19, 2009
Well, it's certainly news to me as well. Of course, it is a CNN article, heh. I really had no idea that pre-industrial civilization had any impact like this. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
alheithinnAug 19, 2009Submitter
I have such mixed feelings about CNN. It's so accessible but it also has mixed reliability. They'd really do well to improve their writing and research staff to cross-reference studies. Wouldn't surprise me if the person who wrote the article either didn't know or was too lazy to check or if some editor decided it made the story too long. I only discovered all this because I happen to be a polytheist who likes to debunk myths about a supposed polytheistic golden age and I did some digging in that direction. That said, the ancient polytheists had a much healthier attitude towards nature than the Christian cultures which followed.