A few years ago, I watched a documentary about the making of the movie Fitzcaraldo. One section that made me chuckle was when the narrator said that scientists predict that the Amazon rainforest will be totally gone by the year 2010. Obviously that didn't happen.
I wouldn't feel too hopeless about things just based off of a study whose timescale is roughly the same as cold fusion research. We still had the rainforest in 2010 because people changed their behavior and the rate of deforestation decreased. There's still time to change things.
> scientists predict that the Amazon rainforest will be totally gone by the year 2010. Obviously that didn't happen.
Wouldn't that be natural to expect because of efforts to extend its lifetime?
If this study has a positive effect on policies, etc. I think it'd also be natural to expect that it lives longer than 2064. I interpret 2064 as being the end of its lifetime only if we do absolutely nothing more to prevent it.
That’s the time scale it took place over, not the time scale it took to take place as I’m aware.
That said, native peoples have also played strong roles in maintaining the ecology of grasslands in e.g. the Great Plains through... fire.
But at the same time, those same natives who propagated breadfruit throughout the Amazon were also present as it transitioned from being partly savannah to full on rainforest again.
I wouldn't feel too hopeless about things just based off of a study whose timescale is roughly the same as cold fusion research. We still had the rainforest in 2010 because people changed their behavior and the rate of deforestation decreased. There's still time to change things.