The ecological model in the Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan
James Hansen's Diplomatic Note
The story, in this case – unique – written by the defeated, was not generous with Genghis Khan.
Of him, born in 1162 in a remote corner of Mongolia, it is mainly remembered that after having unified the Turkish-Mongolian tribes, he led them to the conquest of most of Central Asia, China, Russia, Persia, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. Genghis was, albeit short-lived, the largest terrestrial empire in human history. It reached the maximum extent of 24 million km², coming to control a quarter of the population of the Earth. The whole operation was completed in just 73 years thanks to the marked tendency of the Mongols to go fast. Their victims are estimated at 40 million people; many, given that the technology of the time mostly forced them to kill them one at a time and with absolutely artisanal methods.
All this, as well as the fact that he was traditionally born on Deluun Boldog – the "hill of melancholy" – contributed to the fact that the Great Khan is often remembered as a bloodthirsty monster.
But, as they say, omelettes are not made without breaking the eggs and there are those who find an interesting ecological model in the terrifying Mongolian devastation.
Starting from the hypothesis that historical events such as wars and epidemics could perhaps impact the amount of CO2 – carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse gas" par excellence – in the atmosphere, a group of researchers from the Carnegie Institute, the Max Planck Institute and the University of Hamburg calculated the climatic effects of four major human upheavals: the Mongol invasion, the Black Death , the Conquest of the Americas and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty. In theory, events like these – especially through the massive destruction of agriculture – could have resulted in the "capture" of CO2 by trees that would return to occupy the abandoned fields after the social collapse created by various political, military and health disasters. .
The researchers found, however, that the impact of human cataclysms on reducing greenhouse gases through the reforestation of agricultural land, in addition to being very slow and very small in scope, is largely offset by emissions from the rest of the world. For scholars, among human disasters, only the Mongol invasion could have measurably affected the global level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Indeed, they calculate that the Khan's tremendous advance, razing vast territories and wiping out entire civilizations, may have had the effect of removing up to 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere – roughly the amount of CO2 generated in a single year from the global consumption of oil – through the return to the natural state of the previously occupied and cultivated lands.
Research Coordinator Dr. Julia Pongratz says, “Based on an understanding of the past, we are now able to make decisions about the use of our lands that will lessen the impact on the climate and the carbon cycle. We cannot ignore acquired knowledge ”.
But where is a Mongol horde to be found when needed?
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/il-modello-ecologico-nellinvasione-mongola-di-gengis-khan/ on Sun, 20 Jun 2021 06:16:33 +0000.