![]() ![]() More important, the very existence of so much healthy forest after twelve thousand years of use by large populations suggests that whatever Indians did before swidden must have been ecologically more sustainable. (Large cattle ranches are the major offenders in the Amazon, but small-scale farmers are responsible for up to a third of the clearing.) Fortunately, it is a relatively new practice, which means it has not yet had much time to cause damage. At the same time, it pours huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, a factor in global warming. The burning sends up in smoke most of the nutrients in the vegetation-almost all of the nitrogen and half the phosphorus and potassium. Mann is the author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created and his latest, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. Although swidden does permit the forest to regrow, it is wildly inefficient and environmentally unsound. : Expressions 2023: Cape Coral High Schools Literary Magazine: 9798391886891: Smoly, Aaron, Marrero, Jaylen, Cruz, Eliza, Canter, Lion, Charles, Jadayah. ![]() Slash-and-burn cultivation has become one of the driving forces behind the loss of tropical forest. So thorough was the erasure that within a few generations neither conqueror nor conquered knew that this world had existed. “In the Amazon, the turn to swidden was unfortunate. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus 14 likes Like Much of this world vanished after Columbus, swept away by disease and subjugation. ![]()
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