Did humans cause the last Ice Age to end?
No. The Ice Age did not end suddenly: before and since 16 000 years ago there have been intermittent periods of hot and cold. Although since 40 000BC most deforestation has been caused by humans, unlike today there were insufficient tools and manpower available 16 000 years ago for humans to have felled and burned enough trees to have made sufficient impact on the environment to cause climate change. Nor is there evidence of such widespread deforestation in North America at that time. This bears little comparison with modern deforestation where it has been estimated that since 5000BC 40% of the world’s forests have been lost through human deforestation (about 15 million square miles). Between 1850 and 1950 alone 50% of the remaining tropical rain forests were cleared (about 3 million square miles) and forests have continued to be destroyed. Forests like the oceans are large carbon “sinks” that absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis and expel oxygen back into the atmosphere.
