Reflection: "Before Global Warming, Humans Caused Global Cooling, Study Finds"

It's equally important to read up on what journalists are saying in the environmental world. So, I'm trying this new thing where I read a piece and write my thoughts on it and briefly paraphrase it. This first one is by Niraj Chokshi on Feb. 5 with the New York Times Science section.

The piece— published today discusses a new study that claims humans started to affect the Earth’s climate far before the Industrial Revolution. The authors of the study claim that after 90 percent of the indigenous population was eliminated by disease and war. After these 55 million people were gone, earth took over the land and the new vegetation “heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and into the land.” The hypothesis is that colonization reduced amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere.

While the article is interesting and involves both history and science, I feel it could go more in depth about the cooling effect on the Earth. If readers aren’t familiar with CO2 emissions in the air and atmosphere, the conjectures being made don’t seem relevant to them. The author provides substantial data from the study, but doesn’t fully explain certain jargon, such as the “Little Ice Age.”

What I enjoyed most was that the author of the article transitioned into critics of the theory and provided their thoughts. This strengthened the article and allowed readers to not only broaden their knowledge, but assist in taking a stance or develop opinions about the study.