OK, now I’ve heard everything.
Scientists at Carnegie Institution for Science are arguing that “overhunting” of wooly mammoths 15,000 years ago led to a small but measurable change in the planet’s weather.
Their reasoning is as follows: When the last Ice Age ended 15,000 years ago, the warming temperatures started die-offs among mammoths, which were more suited to frigid weather. Human hunters then decreased the mammoth population “far more rapidly than would have occurred otherwise,” according to the scientists.
As mammoth populations dropped, one of their favored foods—birch trees—was allowed to grow and spread freely. According to the study, the trees grew “more than enough to blot out the sun from the grass below. The trees actually darkened the color of the landscape, increasing the amount of sunlight absorbed and heating up the area.”
(Personally, I thought such a condition was called “shade.” Shows you how smart I am.)
So, as mammoths died off, birch trees spread uncontrollably, and a vicious cycle of warming ensured. Researchers did find that the amount of birch pollen in northern areas increased dramatically, coinciding with the arrival of human hunters and drops in mammoth populations.
I confess I have not read the complete report, but I suspect the scientists did not suggest what human beings 15,000 years ago were supposed to do for food other than hunt.
You can find out more about this research here.
Should you want to know another perspective on climate change, read
Beyond Seasons’ End. The single biggest problem I have in grappling with the whole issue is simply knowing who to believe. Beyond Seasons’ End was written by a group of people I actually trust—hunters. Habitat experts from Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Boone and Crockett and other conservation groups all contributed. I don’t pretend to accept all of it, but hunting is too important to me not to consider all perspectives of a complicated issue.
