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Was Genghis Khan history's greenest conqueror?
Mother Nature Network ^ | 24 January 2011 | Bryan Nelson

Posted on 01/24/2011 3:54:27 PM PST by Fractal Trader

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Earn Points What's this?

Comments (21) Email Facebook Twitter Stumble Digg Share Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion actually cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

So how exactly did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan did it the same way he built his empire — with a high body count.

Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.

In other words, one effect of Genghis Khan's unrelenting invasion was widespread reforestation, and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere.

"It's a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era," said Julia Pongratz, who headed the Carnegie Institution research project. "Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earth's landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture."

Pongratz's study, which was completed with the help of her Carnegie colleague Ken Caldeira, as well as with German colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, measured the carbon impact of a number of historical events besides just the Mongol invasion, including the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China's Ming Dynasty and the conquest of the Americas.

What all of these events share in common is the widespread return of forests after a period of massive depopulation, but the longevity of the Mongol invasion made it stand out as having the biggest impact on the world's climate.

"We found that during the short events such as the Black Death and the Ming Dynasty collapse, the forest re-growth wasn't enough to overcome the emissions from decaying material in the soil," explained Pongratz. "But during the longer-lasting ones like the Mongol invasion... there was enough time for the forests to re-grow and absorb significant amounts of carbon."

The 700 million tons of carbon absorbed as a result of the Mongol invasions roughly equals the amount of carbon global society now produces annually from gasoline.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; china; genghiskhan; genocide; globalwarminghoax; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; mongolmassmurderers; mongols; yurt; yurts
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Reagan, through peaceful means conquered 200,000,000 commies!


41 posted on 01/24/2011 4:53:38 PM PST by roostercogburn
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To: roostercogburn
Leftist history in three lines:

- first they kill about 300 million last century.
- Reagan defeats them peacefully
- now they want even more to die

42 posted on 01/24/2011 5:00:10 PM PST by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric cartman voice* 'I love you guys')
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To: Fractal Trader
and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere.

And those trees eventually died, rotted and returned their carbon to the atmosphere.

43 posted on 01/24/2011 5:02:28 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Fractal Trader

I don’t know if Genghis Khan was “green” or not, but he was one heck of a globalist.


44 posted on 01/24/2011 5:04:33 PM PST by The Duke
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To: Fractal Trader
horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes
1. The term is Ordu, meaning detachment or mobile camp.
2. They road horses. Cavalry normally had 2 or 3, to switch of, when one was tired
3. 2 bows,

Re Green death:
Isn't this partially ofset by his large number of offspring? Are the scientists trying to blame the Little Ice Age and Black Death on the Mongols?

45 posted on 01/24/2011 5:13:17 PM PST by rmlew (You want change? Vote for the most conservative electable in your state or district.)
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To: The Duke
I don’t know if Genghis Khan was “green” or not, but he was one heck of a globalist.
Great line from the Secret History: "As Tengri is the one ruler in Heaven, there shall be one ruler on earth." Temujin, the Chingis Khan.
46 posted on 01/24/2011 5:15:56 PM PST by rmlew (You want change? Vote for the most conservative electable in your state or district.)
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To: Fireone

LOL! Good one. I almost forgot about his famous comment.


47 posted on 01/24/2011 5:23:18 PM PST by ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton (Standing by the walls of Minas Tirith as Sauron's forces pound the gates...)
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To: Fractal Trader

That article is proof that ‘toking’ and typing don’t mix.


48 posted on 01/24/2011 5:23:18 PM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principles,)
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To: Cicero
Genghis Kahn: Population Controller.

He had Death Panels?

49 posted on 01/24/2011 5:25:47 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: PzLdr

I’d give the credit to Subutai. Had Ögedei Khan not died when he died, Subutai would have turned on teh Holy roman Empire, and conquered everything up the English Channel.


50 posted on 01/24/2011 5:30:39 PM PST by rmlew (You want change? Vote for the most conservative electable in your state or district.)
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To: Fractal Trader; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach ·
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Thanks Fractal Trader!

Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests. Donkey Burger


To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
 

· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword ·
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·


51 posted on 01/24/2011 5:57:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: Fractal Trader
I dispute the notion that Genghis Khan was one of the cruelest conquerors. As soon as his enemies surrendered they became his subjects and were offered service in his armies. They were allowed to practice whatever religion they chose to. The conquered people were put under his protection.

As an aside; CO2 has no effect on climate whatsoever.

52 posted on 01/24/2011 5:59:44 PM PST by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/28/08 and why?)
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To: Steve Van Doorn
What about Col Green?


53 posted on 01/24/2011 6:01:26 PM PST by Perdogg (What Would Aqua Buddha do?)
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To: rmlew

You wrote:

“I’d give the credit to Subutai. Had Ögedei Khan not died when he died, Subutai would have turned on teh Holy roman Empire, and conquered everything up the English Channel.”

Maybe. Fighting through German and French forests is harder than on the eastern plains. The Magyars found out about that. But I would credit God rather than Subutai. He decides when to take Mongol khans out of the picture.


54 posted on 01/24/2011 6:02:16 PM PST by vladimir998 (Copts, Nazis, Franks and Beans - what a public school education puts in your head.)
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To: Tanniker Smith

He was a Family Planner, too. Biggest contributor to the gene pool ever.


55 posted on 01/24/2011 6:12:13 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Fractal Trader

56 posted on 01/24/2011 6:19:07 PM PST by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Fractal Trader

Last summer my brother and I were working outdoors and the sun was moving in and out from behind clouds. Every time it did, there was a 30 degree change in temperature with two minutes. Show me a person who believes that anything in the world other than the sun affects climate, and I’ll show you somebody who never goes outdoors.


57 posted on 01/24/2011 6:19:45 PM PST by wendy1946
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To: Fractal Trader

These3 retards will stop at nothing to continue the scam..


58 posted on 01/24/2011 6:19:49 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: mgpilot
"This theory makes Stalin a pretty good environmentalist (25 million killed). And we know that the Greens admire and respect him."

It also explains why NASA's James Hansen is such a fan of the chinese. Mao killed over 40 million.

59 posted on 01/24/2011 6:21:07 PM PST by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Longdriver
Story about muslims with a happy ending(muslims all get slaughtered) i.e. the tale of the idiot who seized a Mongolian trade caraven, took everything, killed everybody, and when Genghis Khan sent four ambassadors to figure out what the **** had happened, burned their beards off and sent them back like that to show Genghis Khan how bad he was...
60 posted on 01/24/2011 6:24:49 PM PST by wendy1946
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