Ice Age hunters destroyed Europe's forests

Angela

Angela

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Color me a little bit skeptical about this.

See:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161201092823.htm

"[FONT=&quot]Large-scale forest fires started by prehistoric hunter-gatherers are probably the reason why Europe is not more densely forested. The finding -- by an international team, including climate researcher Professor Jed Kaplan of the University of Lausanne and archaeologist Professor Jan Kolen of Leiden University -- was published Nov. 30 in the journal [/FONT]PLOS ONE[FONT=&quot]."

This is the link to the actual paper:
Jed O Kaplan et al: [/FONT]http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166726
 
They claim that one of their computer models shows LGM vegetation to be more dense, but in reality it wasn't, looking like steppe instead. They concluded that people must have burned the forest.
Ridiculous "science".
 
LeBrok said:
They claim that one of their computer models shows LGM vegetation to be more dense, but in reality it wasn't, looking like steppe instead. They concluded that people must have burned the forest.
Ridiculous "science".
Click to expand...

I hate to accuse scientists of bias, and I certainly do believe that human activity impacts the environment, but it seemed to me that this might be one of those studies driven by the climate change agenda, trying to find it even when it's absolutely not clear that it actually happened.

This is, of course, a totally different situation from the one where decades of science have shown reduced fitness in the offspring of parents over a certain age at the time of conception.
 
Angela said:
Color me a little bit skeptical about this.

See:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161201092823.htm

"Large-scale forest fires started by prehistoric hunter-gatherers are probably the reason why Europe is not more densely forested. The finding -- by an international team, including climate researcher Professor Jed Kaplan of the University of Lausanne and archaeologist Professor Jan Kolen of Leiden University -- was published Nov. 30 in the journal PLOS ONE."

This is the link to the actual paper:
Jed O Kaplan et al: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166726
Click to expand...

Very highly unlikely scenario in my opinion. Europe generally speaking favors quick generation of forest cover, which the small population in this period would not be able to control such huge areas. Forest was a source of food for hunter gatherers so the probability was that it was a valued part of the environment. Forest destruction probably made more sense with the introduction of farming (sowing of grains and legumes, orchards and grazing of animals) but this would have only become very aggressive as population grew and more farmland was needed with a climax during the industrial area when machinery was introduced. Building bigger wooden ships for trade and war also depleted some forest. Lebanon was well known for its wood and the beautiful Lebanese pine which was popular all over the region and imported since Phoenician times. Now there is just one mere patch left on some remote mountain. What a shame. Same thing happened in North America with the arrival of Europeans, clearing huge swathes of land from tree cover for agriculture purposes.
 
Maleth said:
Very highly unlikely scenario in my opinion. Europe generally speaking favors quick generation of forest cover, which the small population in this period would not be able to control such huge areas. Forest was a source of food for hunter gatherers so the probability was that it was a valued part of the environment. Forest destruction probably made more sense with the introduction of farming (sowing of grains and legumes, orchards and grazing of animals) but this would have only become very aggressive as population grew and more farmland was needed with a climax during the industrial area when machinery was introduced. Building bigger wooden ships for trade and war also depleted some forest. Lebanon was well known for its wood and the beautiful Lebanese pine which was popular all over the region and imported since Phoenician times. Now there is just one mere patch left on some remote mountain. What a shame. Same thing happened in North America with the arrival of Europeans, clearing huge swathes of land from tree cover for agriculture purposes.
Click to expand...

Not only that but in Animism, the whole point of the philosophy is to respect nature and the wildlife; even if hunted for food or else you will not have luck on your next hunt or Fishing; could be different in other parts of the world though. There are even power animals, mine is the Rabbit ^_^


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism



https://www.shamanlinks.net/shaman-info/the-spirit-world/power-animals/
 
Twilight said:
Not only that but in Animism, the whole point of the philosophy is to respect nature and the wildlife; even if hunted for food or else you will not have luck on your next hunt or Fishing; could be different in other parts of the world though. There are even power animals, mine is the Rabbit ^_^


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism



https://www.shamanlinks.net/shaman-info/the-spirit-world/power-animals/
Click to expand...

Indeed, that is very relevant with the amazon rainforest culture and first Nations in North America.
 
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