According to papers released to support the argument that Global Warming threatens the planet, Genghis Khan may have done more to cool the planet than anyone else in history.
The Great Conqueror was responsible for slaughtering an estimated 40,000,000 people from 1206 until 1227. The logic the advocates use is that the humans then had cleared forests to make the land suitable for farming. Trees not only produce oxygen but absorb carbon dioxide. Furthermore, people and their livestock create huge amounts of methane gas which they reason causes the earth’s temperature to rise.
Genghis Khan’s widespread genocide they figure accomplished two things benefiting the environment. The first was that it eliminated a major and recurring source of methane. Second, it allowed for the natural reforestation of 22% of the earth’s land. They theorize that Genghis Khan’s mass murders resulted in a reduction in 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.
The Mother Nature Network reports that Julia Pongratz and her colleague Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institute’s Department of Global Ecology espouse these ideas and position.