Lichtgeschwindigkeit_
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American colonisation killed so many people it triggered climate change, study suggests
I remember back in the Late 70's, there was a show called "Connections" made by British science historian James Burke. This was somewhat of a precursor to "Guns, Germs, and Steel" but it essentially made the argument that history and scientific development is more or less governed by a series of butterfly effects.
I suppose that this is one of these butterfly effects. In essence, the drive to colonize the Americas (and the subsequent wars, disease and genocide) killed so many people that forests started to regrow across the Western Hemisphere. As a result, the Medieval Warm Period ended, and the Little Ice Age began. This had far-reaching effects even as far as China. In China, it lead to a lower crop yield, which, coupled with the Ming's decision to introduce paper money as a means of exchange, lead to an economic collapse of the Dynasty.
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas left a trail of death in their wake that also triggered a period of climate change, according to a new theory proposed by British scientists.
A University College London team estimates that 55 million indigenous people died following the conquest of the Americas that began at the end of the 15th century
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Apart from the enormous scale of tragedy, this led to 56 million hectares of land previously set aside for farming being abandoned.
As the land was rapidly reclaimed by trees and vegetation, the plants life sucked such an enormous amount of CO2 from the atmosphere that the Earth cooled.
I remember back in the Late 70's, there was a show called "Connections" made by British science historian James Burke. This was somewhat of a precursor to "Guns, Germs, and Steel" but it essentially made the argument that history and scientific development is more or less governed by a series of butterfly effects.
I suppose that this is one of these butterfly effects. In essence, the drive to colonize the Americas (and the subsequent wars, disease and genocide) killed so many people that forests started to regrow across the Western Hemisphere. As a result, the Medieval Warm Period ended, and the Little Ice Age began. This had far-reaching effects even as far as China. In China, it lead to a lower crop yield, which, coupled with the Ming's decision to introduce paper money as a means of exchange, lead to an economic collapse of the Dynasty.