Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by v1l 969 days ago
How do they know CO2 levels 500 years back? And what happened in 1600 for them to drop?
2 comments

I'm no expert, but it seems one prominent theory on why CO2 dropped around 1600 is that it's a result of Europeans killing so many indigenous Americans. The reduction in agriculture led to forests regrowing, giving a temporary boost to CO2 sequestration. The CO2 dip is referred to as the "Orbis Spike".

This seems to be one of the better results on the subject: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2015/mar/epoch-defining-study-pin...

how: ice cores (I don't know the answer re: 1600s)