…both by meandering rivers and human beings, is to create a more, a less herbaceous, more annual, more ephemeral kind of biotome. Carl Sauer, the geographer, said, we found the planet a climaxed forest, and we will leave it a weedy lot. That's what he…

…very quickly because, first of all, you're not professionally interested in the details of evolution of ecosystems. But, for instance, Carl Sauer has argued that there is no such thing as a natural grassland, that grasslands are the earliest artifact of…

…but emulate it, we could rise out of the rubble that we are making of the planet. You know, it was the geographer Carl Sauer who said man found the planet a climaxed primeval forest. He and notice the gender here. He will leave the planet a weedy…

…So, clearly, what we have are the survivors of a process of clearing. And there is argument among botanists about this. But Carl Sauer, who was a great geographer and thinker on these matters, held that there is no such thing as a natural grassland, that…

…strategy for the rapid invasion and claiming of empty land. And before human beings, rivers were the major creators of empty land. Carl Sauer, who was a biologist and a geographer, he said, man found the earth, the climax rainforest, and we will leave it…