"Lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message
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"Jeremy Handscomb" wrote in message
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Interesting article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4755328.stm

Saw that yesterday. I really can't believe that a few more trees growing
again, in primarily the area of Europe which is so small when compared to
the rest of the worlds untouched forest/jungle at that present time.
The other thing is that even if some agricultural areas did return to
Forest surely that timescale of deforestation to the onset of the little
ice age is ridiculously short.

The conventional wisdom has it the other way round. There was a
well-documented sharp reversal in the European climate early in
the 14th century, a reversal mirrored in east Asia where widespread
floods damaged the black rat's habitat, triggering a wave of migrations
westward across central Asia and ultimately to Europe.

Philip