tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post8850179474701882058..comments2024-01-30T19:45:36.648+11:00Comments on Lounge of the Lab Lemming: Orbital cycles, Australian lake levels, and the arrival of aboriginesC W Mageehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-65358850662243310222011-10-22T14:15:49.414+11:002011-10-22T14:15:49.414+11:00So if humans in Australia started suppressing fire...So if humans in Australia started suppressing fire rather than encouraging it, the continent would green up to some extent?Jim Baergnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-24957937695448693902011-10-14T19:45:27.858+11:002011-10-14T19:45:27.858+11:00Another interesting question is whether or not glo...Another interesting question is whether or not global warming will bring us a stage 5 style (smallish) permanent lake. <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/" rel="nofollow">Gavin?</a>C W Mageehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-16972412867117603112011-10-14T16:50:53.002+11:002011-10-14T16:50:53.002+11:00We all know that already. Loss of Megafauna, repla...We all know that already. Loss of Megafauna, replacement of flora by grasslands and xerophytes, the aridity of Australia and the coming of the Aborigines are all connected.<br /><br />The Central Aborigines are still doing that today, burning grasslands and the xerophytic plants, despite having no imperitive to do so. Hunting and gathering here is replaced by supermarkets and fast food.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-1571279436421498632011-10-14T07:14:07.443+11:002011-10-14T07:14:07.443+11:00Not the whole continent: the main aridification ev...Not the whole continent: the main aridification event was the transition from NZ-style rain forest to semiarid in the Miocene, as the continent drifted north and global temperatures fell. But for east central Australia, it looks likely that the introduction of anthropogenic burning make have given the current pyrophilic biota a leg up in the tropics.C W Mageehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-57870242416330019482011-10-13T23:13:24.696+11:002011-10-13T23:13:24.696+11:00Holy $#!*. So the aborigines' ancestors may ha...Holy $#!*. So the aborigines' ancestors may have desert-ified a whole continent? <br /><br />Compare and contrast with logging in the Amazon.<br /><br />Of course, there's the correlation/causation thing. Maybe the aborigines arrived because of a climate change that also caused more lightning storms and burned off the forests. Or something like that. <br /><br />But it's still damn Chris Phoenixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13368959552769808835noreply@blogger.com