Is it possible to rebuild tropical rain forrest?

[YellowSubmarine]

* The rainforest is 5 million square kilometres.
* I don't know how much inhabitants it had historically, but presently there are 0.8 million native people in Brazil, which includes more than half of the rainforest, and that includes people who do not live in the forest.
* The native people have fertilized between 0.1-0.3% of the soil, "1491" cites a soil biologist who offers the crazier estimate of 10%, which I find unthinkable. But 0.3% is still a big number, particularly when a large number of that has been inhabited by farmed species, that would affect the remaining ecosystem as well.

 

[{ Emilia }]

And really, I don't see what's so implausible about the idea thatt the indigenous populations who lived in the Americas for over 12,000 years actually affected the landscape

Of course they affected it. It's the degree we seem to be in massive disagreement over.

And any hobby archeologist can cite a lot of actual archeologists. An impressive bibliography is only the first step, though. What matters is what you do with it, of what quality your own research is and I don't think he's got the necessary expertise. So what I'm more interested in is knowing how actual science reacted to his stuff (if at all).

His credentials aren't impressive at all. He's a journalist writing about science. Not a scientist.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Christopher, you called the rainforest a "marvelous work of Native American bioengineering," which is a claim even Mann's text doesn't readily support. I'm not sure how you think anyone could be arguing what you're accusing them of arguing. People lived there, so of course they affected their environment. No one can live anywhere without doing that. But you are putting forth a level of intentional organizational behavior that's pretty lacking in evidence.

 

[T'Girl]

Of course the majority of that food production was either to generate profit ...

Yes, if you don't generate a profit your farm goes out of business, and no food is grown for domestic use, or export to the hungry of the world.

Unless you're subsistence farming, it is a business.

large corporations expanding their profitable farming operations.

In the Amazon rainforest? Not so much, mostly (not all) in that region are family farms. The majority of the big agri-businesses are in the central and southern regions of Brazil.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Of course the majority of that food production was either to generate profit ...

Yes, if you don't generate a profit your farm goes out of business, and no food is grown for domestic use, or export to the hungry of the world.

Unless you're subsistence farming, it is a business.

large corporations expanding their profitable farming operations.

In the Amazon rainforest? Not so much, mostly (not all) in that region are family farms. The majority of the big agri-businesses are in the central and southern regions of Brazil.

Which is why I said that the subsistence farmers clearing parts of the rainforest are mostly individuals who are displaced or cannot find areas to farm in other parts of the country primarily due to large corporations buying up fertile land.

 

[T'Girl]

But the farmers in the rainforest area weren't displaced, the farms were there prior to the big agri-businesses coming into existence elsewhere in Brazil. Converting the forest into farm land is them expanding. Don't get me wrong, new people do come in for the opportunity of land..

My own family has been farming in that area since the mid nineteenth century, they weren't forced there from some other part of the country, they started there after emigrating from Portugal.

 

[Dryson]

Folks are looking at artificial CO2 sequestration--and artificial leaves would be nice on Mars.

Artificial leaves on Mars.

http://www.cnet.com/news/mit-demos-flexible-solar-panels-printed-on-paper/