Just in case you don't think humans don't have an impact on the environment, check out the story of Genghis Khan.
According to a new study reported here, Genghis Khan will probably go down as the greenest-ever invader. Julia Pongratz of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology found that Genghis Khan killed so many people when he established his empire between the 13th and 14th centuries that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest. With the deaths of 40million people, large areas of cultivated land grew thick once again with trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. According to the study, re-growth of forests during the Mongol invasion absorbed 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, equaling the amount of carbon global society now produces annually from motor cars.
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