There was an article in the Atlantic Monthly: "March 2002 1491 by Charles C. Mann, which said:

Before it became the New World, the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been thought—an altogether more salubrious place to live at the time than, say, Europe. New evidence of both the extent of the population and its agricultural advancement leads to a remarkable conjecture: the Amazon rain forest may be largely a human artifact

Planting their orchards, the first Amazonians transformed large swaths of the river basin into something more pleasing to human beings. In a widely cited article from 1989, William Balée, the Tulane anthropologist, cautiously estimated that about 12 percent of the nonflooded Amazon forest was of anthropogenic origin—directly or indirectly created by human beings. In some circles this is now seen as a conservative position. "I basically think it's all human-created," Clement told me in Brazil. He argues that Indians changed the assortment and density of species throughout the region. So does Clark Erickson, the University of Pennsylvania archaeologist, who told me in Bolivia that the lowland tropical forests of South America are among the finest works of art on the planet. "Some of my colleagues would say that's pretty radical," he said, smiling mischievously. According to Peter Stahl, an anthropologist at the State University of New York at Binghamton, "lots" of botanists believe that "what the eco-imagery would like to picture as a pristine, untouched Urwelt [primeval world] in fact has been managed by people for millennia." The phrase "built environment," Erickson says, "applies to most, if not all, Neotropical landscapes."

Unfortunately, they have put it in their premium archive.

The Article I cited has been revised and expanded as a book to be published in August.

"The Gipper was on to those trees twenty-five years ago."

And Eric Cartman was onto them six years ago as well...

From the end of the article:

Even without the massive burning, the popular conception of the Amazon as a giant oxygen factory for the rest of the planet is misguided, scientists say. Left unmolested, the forest does generate enormous amounts of oxygen through photosynthesis, but it consumes most of it itself in the decomposition of organic matter. . . .

"For sure, the Amazon is not the lungs of the world," [Paulo Barreto, a researcher with the Amazon Institute of People and Environment] added. "It never was."

That Atlantic Monthly article was one of the most interesting and eye-opening I have ever read. The cover art was perfect--a community of American Indians, but with modern-day conveniences subtly added (like a wristwatch, if I remember correctly). I can't wait to get the book.

Weren't we destroying an area of the rain forest the size of Rhode Island, or Connecticut, or some New England state, every year, or month, or day, or whatever?

Shouldn't the rain forest be gone by now?

Each year, the Rainforest is responsible for over three thousand deaths from accidents, attacks or illnesses.

There are over seven hundred things in the Rainforest that cause cancer.

Join the fight now and help stop the Rainforest before it's too late.

Here in Chicagoland, people are fighting to keep the "forest preserves" as they are, little knowing that the area was originally a prairie grass savannah broken only a a few oak trees. The trees they are so intent on saving are opportunistic, trashy trees that have grown up after the land was idled from farm production and almost eradicated the native flora and fauna.

Isn't the land that they are claiming from the forest pretty useless for agriculture? The last time I watched an in-depth show on the rainforiest, about 10 years ago, the land was only farmed for a few years until it was drained of nutrients, then the settlers moved on to some other newly burned area.

We should disabuse the 3rd worlders of any notion that their salvation is bound up with access to agricultural land. The era of the family farmer is gone for good, better that they go to work for agribusiness or learn a real skill and work for whatever multinational firm will set up shop in their country. When they have suburbanized the area, the forests will come back.

Rick, are the forest preserves actually manmade? Much of northern Illinois was glacier carved and not part of the prairie. I know that the extensive woods in McHenry County were natural, and my initial assumption is that the Chicago preserves are similar.