The Europeans who colonised the Americas unleashed a wave of change and devastation so significant that it started a new era in the Earth’s geology, according to a study.
The first settlers are thought to have killed more than 50 million natives in the New World, mostly by introducing unfamiliar diseases such as smallpox. This allowed the rainforests of South America to grow back to such an extent that levels of carbon dioxide fell around the world, marking the beginning of a new geological epoch, British geographers argue.
Scientists are divided over whether we are living in the “anthropocene”, an age where mankind has been the most powerful force shaping the surface of the planet — and if so, when it began.
Some have suggested