Spring Break
Fall Colloquium lecture notes pre-industrial climate change
Tyler Will
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: News
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Charles Mann, author and journalist who has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and the Law and Order television series, explained habits of pre-industrial cultures and their effects on the climate in the Fall 2008 Honors Colloquium last night.
Mann started his lecture with a painting of American Indians on horses, with feather head dresses from his high school history textbook, which he said was inaccurate because Europeans brought over horses and American Indians didn't wear head dresses.
Another common misconception, Mann said, was that Indians had more impact on their land in North America than European settlers did.
"[European settlers] hadn't been there as long," Mann said after the speech. "In 1650 we have these small groups of settlers, but the main story is this decline" of tribes.
American Indians in Massachusetts had deforestation practices to grow corn. In the Cahokia city, outside present-day St. Louis, Mo., natives cut down trees, which reduced the land's ability to retain water, causing floods.
They also dug a canal, which would fill with water and float tree logs right to the city. But that canal also channeled floodwaters into the city.
"If you're going to make the land more flood prone, the last thing you want to do is cut a channel that takes those floods right to your front door," Mann said.
When native tribes in both Americas burned trees, the Earth lost some of its ability to absorb carbon dioxide, which contributed to the Medieval Warming period.
When trees grew back and European methods called for less deforestation, Mann said the Earth absorbed a lot of carbon dioxide, which contributed to the Little Ice Age, lasting from the 1500s until about 1700.
By the time European settlement became widespread, in about 1650, Mann said corn farms were all over New England.
