Genghis Khan the GREEN: Invader killed so many people that carbon levels plummeted

[Demeter]

Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history - after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest.

The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study.

The deaths of 40 million people meant that large areas of cultivated land grew thick once again with trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

And, although his methods may be difficult for environmentalists to accept, ecologists believe it may be the first ever case of successful manmade global cooling.

‘It's a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era,’ said Julia Pongratz, who headed the research by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.

‘Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earth's landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture,’ she told Mongabay.com.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1350272/Genghis-Khan-killed-people-forests-grew-carbon-levels-dropped.html#ixzz1D6XZ4q4X

[cliffordu]

1. I think we have a solution to Climate change......

[Warren Stupidity]

2. not a joke

as far as I can tell WorldCorp's plan to deal with catastrophic climate change is: 'go die'.

[Angry Dragon]

3. +1000

[cliffordu]

4. Yep, I know.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Well, yes. The world is terribly overpopulated

from the perspective of the ultra-rich. Once they eliminate us via starvation, engineered diseases or whatever, the 100 million remaining people aren't going to pollute much, considering that only about 1000 of them will be able to afford cars.

It's really all very simple.

[bhikkhu]

7. Not so much overpopulated as overutilized

In the midst of our planet's sixth great extinction event, and this being the only one driven by a single species acting alone, its not unreasonable to look at what we are doing wrong. Laying claim to the majority of fresh water on the planet is probably the main thing - humans are very water-dependent, so this is probably the primary limiting factor on our numbers. Of course other species are also water-dependent, so the more we take, the more they die. There doesn't seem to be substantial room for efficiency or improvement in the equation either, as we already have 2 billion or so of our numbers without adequate water, and all increases in our food supply rely on water for irrigation.

[xchrom]

6. that genghis -- always ahead of his time. nt

[demigoddess]

8. once the island of Great Britain was covered shore to shore in trees.

Not now. Perhaps we would make a dent if everyone would go out and plant a tree or two in every yard or several in every field. Instead we are constantly cutting down trees, and not only to put something in their place. Sometimes people cut down trees just because they do not find them 'tidy' or convenient. Some people cut down trees because they think grass won't grow in shade or because they think a tree will fall on their house or car. PS. my grass grows best in shade, you just have to plant grass that likes shade.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. So was Indiana

It didn't take the new settlers long to cut down the trees in Indiana.