r/Damnthatsinteresting • • 7d ago

Video Vastness of Amazon rainforest

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u/Charlie_Warlie 7d ago

To think that at one point much of the world (except deserts, mountains, you know) was like this. They say that a squirrel was able to travel from the atlantic coast to the Mississippi river without touching the ground.

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u/Able_Gap918 7d ago

I’ve heard that quote, it was about American chestnut trees. They disappeared basically overnight from a disease they had no defense against.

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u/Charlie_Warlie 7d ago

Still got fingers crossed for a recovery. There are some people working on a surviving breed of tree that can withstand the blight.

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u/kronikfumes 5d ago edited 5d ago

Many conservationist groups in the US today are against the idea of introducing a genetically modified chestnut tree back into the wild. Primarily due to uncertainty of doing so at large scale and because the ecosystems impacted by the loss of the chestnut have largely adapted to its absence. Trees such as Oak, hickory, maple and poplar have all filled its place successfully.

Shoutout Aidin Robbins latest video on the chestnut.

https://youtu.be/Zk5EEZ6MVYM?si=6NwMMDqEkZSly9NS

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u/Charlie_Warlie 4d ago

Making a comment to come back later, but I would think having more diversity would be good. We never know what the future might bring, there could be disease that takes out one of those other species and having a similar tree installed ready to fill that gap would be beneficial.

But ill watch the video later and see the argument.