"We estimate that 55 million indigenous people died following the European conquest of the Americas beginning in 1492. This led to the abandonment and secondary succession of 56 million hectares of land.... These changes show that the Great Dying of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas is necessary for a parsimonious explanation of the anomalous decrease in atmospheric CO2 at that time and the resulting decline in global surface air temperatures. These changes show that human actions had global impacts on the Earth system in the centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution."


"Within these late years, there hath, by God's visitation, reigned a wonderful plague, the utter destruction, devastation, and depopulation of that whole territory, so as there is not left any that do claim or challenge any kind of interest therein. We, in our judgment, are persuaded and satisfied, that the appointed time is come in which Almighty God, in his great goodness and bounty towards us, and our people, hath thought fit and determined, that those large and goodly territories, deserted as it were by their natural inhabitants, should be possessed and enjoyed by such of our subjects." - King James I

Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492

boinboing

-------------------------
"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

There's been guesses about changes in vegetation after the peoples who minded the Americas largely disappeared. Loss of population was similar in Pacific islands. While Spanish brutality abetted the pandemics, the lack of exposure of indigenous Americans to typical Eurasian and African diseases (often the result of people living with livestock) was probably enough to ensure near-extermination. The arrival of African diseases helped make tropical America (including the southeast of the present US) unhealthy for Europeans. New England had far better (European) longevity than anywhere to the south. SC and Georgia were about as bad as the Caribbean.

so, iTHIS was the cause of the so called "global warming"

It's not easy to come up with numbers, but this is a diligent try. This Guardian article leads to the original study (as does WG's link), which is open access with lots of details. With 90% die-off, vast tracts of farmland were abandoned and trees grew where crops had been, tying up carbon dioxide.

I think the Black Death has been blamed for somewhat similar effects.

Edited: 01/29/2023 at 09:16 PM by ww

ergo, this is also why we can't have nice things