It has been obvious for quite a long time that deforestation and desertification are two enormous drivers of global warming. Regenerating the carbon sink is obviously necessary.
I am skeptical about the impact on global warming caused by the mass death of American Natives. The Native Americans did not deforest to the same extent that their European, Levantian, and Asian counterparts did. For example, the little ice age happened during a period in which England was almost completely denuded of trees for ship building. American Natives didn't keep livestock. Europeans cleared massive amounts of land for livestock. European and Asian populations were considerably larger and deforested more aggressively.
I remember reading something several years ago about the little ice age being exacerbated by fewer forest fires. One of the bigger sources of carbon in the atmosphere is forest fires. The huge California fires put more carbon into the atmosphere than all of our vehicles do. During the little ice age, drought prone areas were wetter. That caused a double whammy in which not only was carbon not being released into the atmosphere, but was also being extracted by the growing carbon sink. So that exacerbated the little ice age.
I am skeptical about the impact on global warming caused by the mass death of American Natives. The Native Americans did not deforest to the same extent that their European, Levantian, and Asian counterparts did. For example, the little ice age happened during a period in which England was almost completely denuded of trees for ship building. American Natives didn't keep livestock. Europeans cleared massive amounts of land for livestock. European and Asian populations were considerably larger and deforested more aggressively.
I remember reading something several years ago about the little ice age being exacerbated by fewer forest fires. One of the bigger sources of carbon in the atmosphere is forest fires. The huge California fires put more carbon into the atmosphere than all of our vehicles do. During the little ice age, drought prone areas were wetter. That caused a double whammy in which not only was carbon not being released into the atmosphere, but was also being extracted by the growing carbon sink. So that exacerbated the little ice age.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
