Columbus Blamed For Mini Ice Age

DesScorp writes "Science News reports on a story which blames a centuries long cooling of Europe on the discovery of the new world. Scientists contend that the native depopulation and deforestation had a chilling effect on world-wide climate. 'Trees that filled in this territory pulled billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, diminishing the heat-trapping capacity of the atmosphere and cooling climate, says Richard Nevle, a geochemist at Stanford University.' The story notes that the pandemics in the Americas were possibly an example of human climate manipulation predating the Industrial Revolution, though isotope measurements used during research have much uncertainty, so 'that evidence isn't conclusive.'"

Comments

Re:Bla Bla Bla

[flyneye]

I agree, what could the world population have been at the time? Probably not enough. Besides with naturally occurring forest fires or Indians accidentally starting forest fires( pine trees burn pretty colors for the bored, long before television, how many stories round the campfire can one listen to?). Who can say what massive CO2 blasts into the atmosphere do? Pretty good bet the sky isn't falling over it tho.