Similar levels of density were reported around the Mississippi river delta
Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
61–70 of 71 posts
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#62Following _1491_: home to millions of people, the jungle mostly consisting of fruit-bearing trees (the modern Amazonian tribes are living in overgrown orchards), and in possession of miraculous sanitation/fertilizer technology. Everyone should know about terra preta. It turns out it wasn't a soil-enrichment technique, it was sanitation with a side effect of soil enrichment -- and could be very applicable in the devel…
Terra preta is formed naturally by falling fruits, leaves and branches that get composted on the soil. There's a agriculture method called agroforestry that make use of this concept, it's very promising for organic farms: https://vimeo.com/146953911 I know a couple of people here who have "dry bathrooms" (or banheiro seco) that is just a bucket to collect the poo, when you poo you cover it with dry leaves or grinded…
Great video. Very much in line with Allan Savory's plan to reverse climate change: https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_worl....
Instead of planting trees and pruning he uses rotating herds of animals. Both techniques respect nature and revitalize soil compared to conventional industrial farming practices. I don't understand why there aren't more startups in this space. Climate change is a worthwhile problem to tackle.
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#63Supposedly when Europeans (the later arrivals not Vikings) showed up and disease spread killing many First Nations/Native Americans it caused a dramatic environmental shift. As forests took over the former areas where the first peoples of the Americas lived trees sucked up a lot of CO2 causing the mini ice age in Europe. Interesting if true, yet of course very sad as well but if true that pretty incredible to think o…
> As forests took over the former areas where the first peoples of the Americas lived trees sucked up a lot of CO2 causing the mini ice age in Europe.
If you want to account for CO2, should consider native americans (north to south) used the slash-and-burn technique.
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#64When I think about the Amazon rainforest and those who have called it home in the past 500 years - especially as we learn that they were more advanced than we had supposed - I think back to Terence McKenna's dying hope to save the plant medicines that are being forgotten and eradicated with deforestation.
We have no idea what manner of spiritually relevant plants are falling into obscurity cum annihilation, and given the resurgent interest in (and power of) ayahuasca, it's worth taking action to document and remember them.
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#65Following _1491_: home to millions of people, the jungle mostly consisting of fruit-bearing trees (the modern Amazonian tribes are living in overgrown orchards), and in possession of miraculous sanitation/fertilizer technology. Everyone should know about terra preta. It turns out it wasn't a soil-enrichment technique, it was sanitation with a side effect of soil enrichment -- and could be very applicable in the devel…
Terra preta is formed naturally by falling fruits, leaves and branches that get composted on the soil. There's a agriculture method called agroforestry that make use of this concept, it's very promising for organic farms: https://vimeo.com/146953911 I know a couple of people here who have "dry bathrooms" (or banheiro seco) that is just a bucket to collect the poo, when you poo you cover it with dry leaves or grinded…
The Humanure Handbook (http://humanurehandbook.com/) goes into the specifics of how to build sawdust toilets and manage waste and compost safely. For those even remotely interested, the e-book is only USD$10, and earlier editions are free for the downloading.
If you know someone who lives in the country and is interested in off-the-grid living, or is merely serious about gardening, a copy would make for an unusual gift.
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#66Supposedly when Europeans (the later arrivals not Vikings) showed up and disease spread killing many First Nations/Native Americans it caused a dramatic environmental shift. As forests took over the former areas where the first peoples of the Americas lived trees sucked up a lot of CO2 causing the mini ice age in Europe. Interesting if true, yet of course very sad as well but if true that pretty incredible to think o…
The little ice age started before Europeans showed up:
> "cold summers and ice growth began abruptly between 1275 and 1300, followed by "a substantial intensification" from 1430 to 1455"
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#67I wonder if any of this can be used to answer the objections to Biblical stories like Noah's flood: "how did the rainforest come about in a mere 4000 years?" And here we read that the forests were domesticated in the last 3000.
Many ancient cultures have myths about a great flood or series of floods. It was probably not a single global event, but plausibly to have been based in some shift in climate patterns during protohistoric times.
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I too wasn't interested in history at all until I read this book: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power ( http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-Power/dp/143911... ) Which was a fascinating history from the rise of oil in modern times uptil the first Gulf War. I would love recommendations on other history books that got people turned onto history?
I actually got into history through visual sources and maps, like Colin McEvedy's "Penguin Atlas of Medieval History." But the history books that I remember really changing my life include Simon Schama's "The Embarrassment of Riches" (a fantastic history of the rise and fall of the Dutch empire), Alfred Crosby's "Ecological Imperialism" (similar to 1491, but more wide-ranging), and Fernand Braudel's Civilization and…
> I actually got into history through visual sources and maps
I've noticed that fantasy novels often include maps of the fictional geography of the world, and fantasy authors sometimes write introductions basically on the theme "I've always loved maps and thought they were special". Personally, I've never really looked at those omnipresent maps, because they never matter in the story.
On the other hand, maps are incredibly useful when reading history. Or they would be... but history books almost never include them!
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't mean that they weren't Europeans, only that very little of Europe was involved and didn't deserve the parent's invective.
The Dutch controlled large parts of Brazil throughout the 1640s and 1650s, the French had substantial settlements in present-day Guiana and attempted to claim parts of Brazil as "France Antartique," and the English had a number of failed colonies in Amazonia and the Rio de la Plata as well. Heck, even the Scottish attempted to settle a colony in the Darien in present-day Panama. And that's not even including all the…
Thanks, that is fascinating. I'll have to read more about this.
Re: Amazon rainforest was home to millions of people before European arrival
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
The definition "destroy a large number of" has been around for centuries. You're contradicting long established usage, while pretending to appeal to it.
I am not contradicting it. From their context it was not possible to tell if they meant the deaths of 1 in 10, a number similar to that, about half of all people, 9 in 10, 99 in 100 etc. I gave the proportions as remembered from the book as that gives a far clearer picture.
Here's the dictionary definition of decimate. The primary definition is "destroy a large number of". This isn't recent - I looked it up in the full OED and it's been around for centuries.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/decimat...