Ancient farmers spared us from glaciers but profoundly changed Earth's climate
September 6, 2018 by Kelly April Tyrrell, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Millenia ago, ancient farmers cleared land to plant wheat and maize, potatoes and squash. They flooded fields to grow rice. They began to raise livestock. And unknowingly, they may have been fundamentally altering the climate of the Earth.
A study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new evidence that ancient farming practices led to a rise in the atmospheric emission of the heat-trapping gases carbon dioxide and methane—a rise that has continued since, unlike the trend at any other time in Earth's geologic history.
It also shows that without this human influence, by the start of the Industrial Revolution, the planet would have likely been headed for another ice age.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-09-ancient-farmers-glaciers-profoundly-earth.html#jCp
