Laurence Blair

was actually first being consumed in the Ecuadorian Amazon about 5,300 years ago, maybe by the ancestors of those Upano Valley garden cities. So I think the point you make there, Tristan, about a comparison with England, with the English countryside or the British countryside, I think is a good one, because today it's this kind of jumbled landscape. It's gardens, fields, parkland, corpses.

I think we now understand that it's neither entirely natural nor entirely man-made, right? And I think If you can go back a few centuries ago, our ancestors in Britain or across Western Europe were really depending on the forest. They were coppicing, they were making hedgerows, they were gathering firewood, they were hunting. It's not so long ago that we were also in much closer contact with that.

I think we now understand that it's neither entirely natural nor entirely man-made, right? And I think If you can go back a few centuries ago, our ancestors in Britain or across Western Europe were really depending on the forest. They were coppicing, they were making hedgerows, they were gathering firewood, they were hunting. It's not so long ago that we were also in much closer contact with that.

I think we now understand that it's neither entirely natural nor entirely man-made, right? And I think If you can go back a few centuries ago, our ancestors in Britain or across Western Europe were really depending on the forest. They were coppicing, they were making hedgerows, they were gathering firewood, they were hunting. It's not so long ago that we were also in much closer contact with that.

We were molded and molded by the woods. To sum up this stuff on the plant domestication, The rainforest today perhaps has an estimated 400 billion trees. The cautious estimate is that around 10% of them, 40 billion, are there because of humans. And some would put that figure a lot higher and say that we're basically looking at a domesticated forest.

We were molded and molded by the woods. To sum up this stuff on the plant domestication, The rainforest today perhaps has an estimated 400 billion trees. The cautious estimate is that around 10% of them, 40 billion, are there because of humans. And some would put that figure a lot higher and say that we're basically looking at a domesticated forest.

We were molded and molded by the woods. To sum up this stuff on the plant domestication, The rainforest today perhaps has an estimated 400 billion trees. The cautious estimate is that around 10% of them, 40 billion, are there because of humans. And some would put that figure a lot higher and say that we're basically looking at a domesticated forest.

Absolutely, Tristan. Yeah, I mean, if you go to the Amazon today, I mean, right now there's a really bad drought, unfortunately, which maybe we'll talk about in a bit. But they really bring us home how much people, even today, depend on the rivers of the rainforest, not just the Amazon, the Sol de Moist, the Rio Negro.

Absolutely, Tristan. Yeah, I mean, if you go to the Amazon today, I mean, right now there's a really bad drought, unfortunately, which maybe we'll talk about in a bit. But they really bring us home how much people, even today, depend on the rivers of the rainforest, not just the Amazon, the Sol de Moist, the Rio Negro.

Absolutely, Tristan. Yeah, I mean, if you go to the Amazon today, I mean, right now there's a really bad drought, unfortunately, which maybe we'll talk about in a bit. But they really bring us home how much people, even today, depend on the rivers of the rainforest, not just the Amazon, the Sol de Moist, the Rio Negro.

This is really a life that's lived on the water or in close contact with the water. Fish is your main kind of protein source. So it's natural, of course, that people would have really depended on that. centuries or millennia ago.

This is really a life that's lived on the water or in close contact with the water. Fish is your main kind of protein source. So it's natural, of course, that people would have really depended on that. centuries or millennia ago.

This is really a life that's lived on the water or in close contact with the water. Fish is your main kind of protein source. So it's natural, of course, that people would have really depended on that. centuries or millennia ago.

To set the scene for your listeners, if you take the ferry down the Rio Amazon today, you set off from Manaus, you sling your hammock, you find a little spot to squeeze in there amongst the passengers. It takes you about five days to get down to the mouth of the Amazon. a place called Belem, which is actually where the COP conference, the climate conference, is going to be held next year.

To set the scene for your listeners, if you take the ferry down the Rio Amazon today, you set off from Manaus, you sling your hammock, you find a little spot to squeeze in there amongst the passengers. It takes you about five days to get down to the mouth of the Amazon. a place called Belem, which is actually where the COP conference, the climate conference, is going to be held next year.

To set the scene for your listeners, if you take the ferry down the Rio Amazon today, you set off from Manaus, you sling your hammock, you find a little spot to squeeze in there amongst the passengers. It takes you about five days to get down to the mouth of the Amazon. a place called Belem, which is actually where the COP conference, the climate conference, is going to be held next year.

And so you have this big city on the one hand. On the left, you have this place called Marechal Island, which is this kind of Switzerland-sized landmass. And it's actually there which one of the rainforest's longest-lasting civilizations emerged. And again, we have the same pattern as with Ecuador. You know, Brazilian scholars noted that, okay, there was some hillocks here.

And so you have this big city on the one hand. On the left, you have this place called Marechal Island, which is this kind of Switzerland-sized landmass. And it's actually there which one of the rainforest's longest-lasting civilizations emerged. And again, we have the same pattern as with Ecuador. You know, Brazilian scholars noted that, okay, there was some hillocks here.

And so you have this big city on the one hand. On the left, you have this place called Marechal Island, which is this kind of Switzerland-sized landmass. And it's actually there which one of the rainforest's longest-lasting civilizations emerged. And again, we have the same pattern as with Ecuador. You know, Brazilian scholars noted that, okay, there was some hillocks here.

This is an island which is often underwater for half the year, but it has these mounds and it has these, interestingly, these female figurines, these kind of