[AdamN]

Agreed. Spain's old growth forests were denuded to build the Spanish Armada (or thereabouts) and you can go further back to catastrophic, anthropogenic, environmental shifts a few thousand years back in India, China and elsewhere in the world. Geology isn't focused on single year boundaries so maybe it's best to say that we entered the Anthropocene 6k-2k years ago (a 4k year range).

[southernplaces7]

Spains (and much of Europe's) old growth forests were also almost completely denuded much earlier than that to build most of the Roman Empire, and its vast mining operations, naval flotillas and so forth. Yet they grew back to again disappear roughly around the Renaissance over 1000 years later.

The interesting thing is that many modern popular social discussions (and even some pop sci arguments) speak of old growth forests as irreplaceable things that, if cut down, pretty much disappear when history clearly shows that this isn't true.

I don't defend cutting them down just because, but I think it's good to be honest about their ability to come back.