Deforesting the Earth : From Prehistory to Global Crisis Book

List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface List of Measures, Abbreviations, and Acronyms
PART I:CLEARING IN THE DEEP PAST
1 The Return of the Forest
Prologue: The End of the Ice Age Writing the Biography of the Forest The Return of the Forest The Human Impact
2 Fire and Foragers
Fire: "The First Great Force"
Before the Ice: Prehistory "Caught Alive"
After the Ice: Europe After the Ice: North America After the Ice: The Tropics
3 The First Farmers
Domestication and Centers of Agriculture The Neolithics and Forest Clearing
"From Predation to Production": Mesoamerica and South America The Indians and the North American Forest The Rest of the World
4 The Classical World
"Then and Now"
The Mediterranean Environment The Causes of Deforestation Deforestation and Soil Degradation Creating a Second Nature
5 The Medieval World
An Active and Energetic World Causes of Clearing Extent and Pace of Clearing Complexity and Conflict in the Forest European Epilogue: Plague and Reforestation China: A Land of "Ponderous Unknowns"
PART II:REACHING OUT: EUROPE AND THE WIDER WORLD
6 Driving Forces and Cultural Climates, 1500-1750
Driving Forces and Cultural Climates Discovery Technology Modernity Ascendancy
7 Clearing in Europe, 1500-1750
A Timber Crisis?
Agricultural Clearing Fuelwood Charcoal and Iron Making The Demands of the Sea Plunder, Preservation, and Planting
8 The Wider World, 1500-1750
"Ecological Imperialism"
Stepping-Stones and Circuits to the New World The Encounter with the American Forest China: "A Dark Area in Space"
Japan: "The Foundations of the Hearth"
9 Driving Forces and Cultural Climates, 1750-1900
Industrialization Population and Migration Colonization Transportation and Communication Forest Domination, Preservation, and Regulation
10 Clearing in the Temperate World, 1750-1920
Europe: Three Stories of Clearing Clearing a Continent: The United States The Pacific Rim: Complexity and Contrast
11 Clearing in the Tropical World, 1750-1920
Indigenous Use of the Forest Capitalist Penetration: The Passage to India, 1750-1850
Colonial Consolidation: India, 1850-1920
Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia Brazil and the "Long Journey to Extinction"
PART III:THE GLOBAL FOREST
12 Scares and Solutions, 1900-1944
Destructive Exploitation of Global Resources The Coming Timber Famine Clearing in the Less-Developed World Clearing in the Developed World
13 The Great Onslaught, 1945-95: Dimensions of Change
The Causes of Change: "A World Losing Shape"
Concern about Change The Rise of Biodiversity Calibrating Change
14 The Great Onslaught, 1945-95: Patterns of Change
Agricultural Development
"Hoofprints on the Forest": Ranching and Pasture Development Fuelwood and Charcoal Timber Extraction Epilogue: Backward and Forward Glances Notes Bibliography Index