Tsk-Tsk and More Bubble Bursting

And this part even makes it on-topic:

"To the untutored eye-mine, for instance-the forest seems to stretch out in a monstrous green tangle as flat and incomprehensible as a printed circuit board."

Cheers, James Arthur

:["1491" by Charles C. Mann]

The 96 percent population collapse was an eye opener.

The irony that the maize seed that got taken back to Europe ended up sowing the destruction of the indigenus population of the hemisphere whence it originated (and the enslavement of millions of Africans) was chilling.

Fred, Thanks for posting this. So, the native americans were not barbarians surviving off of nature, they were the greatest race (or races) of land management experts the world has seen!

Charlie

It appears that the European invasion of the Americas was the biggest calamity in the history of mankind, no doubt some very valuable cultural elements were lost forever in addition to all the humanity. I never have believed the official government estimates of pre-Columbian Indian population size, could not possibly be accurate; it seems wherever they start on a new construction, Indian artifacts are uncovered, the federal and state government then move in to assess the requirement for archeological excavation. The story also points up what may be in store for us as a result of the global warming shifting deadly parasites, pestilence, and pathogens into virgin territory where they otherwise could not survive, and this endangers all the flora and fauna, not just mankind. Our main staple crops suffer from the same lack of immunologic diversity as the native American MHC, this is very worrisome.

Thanks Fred. This was news to me.

Robert H.