But the question “Has man inadvertently changed the global climate, or is he about to do so?” is quite legitimate. It has been widely discussed publicly – unfortunately with more zeal than insight. Like so many technical questions fought out in the forum of popular magazines and the daily press, the debate has been characterized by misunderstandings, exaggerations, and distortions.
Helmut Landsberg, Science, 18 December 1970
Urban history class is really fascinating, with all sorts of climate re-arranging for human habitation. Swamps drained in New Orleans, hills leveled in Seattle, and perhaps most strikingly, Chicago is about 12-14 feet above the ground it used to be on, and that is through deliberate human action. That’s more microcosms, but we’re seeing bigger effects. Louisiana, for example, would have been much better off with a smaller New Orleans, and silt that was allowed to become the basis of wetlands, instead of being shot into the gulf.
Good quote
Chicago also reversed the course of a river, among other affronts to nature, as told in Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis.
Best,
D