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Re:The True Size of Africa (2015) by ClumsyPilot on Sunday May 16, 2021 @02:03PM (#27175657)
Ancient equivalent is slash-and-burn agriculture, and famines from crop diseases and droughts. I dont think modern vs oldschool juxtaposition is helpfull
Re:The True Size of Africa (2015) by e3bc54b2 on Monday May 17, 2021 @02:22AM (#27180549)
Agreed, but the scale makes all the difference. What few million farmers were doing manually is now being done by same number of of people (approximating, but could be wrong) using massive industrial scale machinery.

Quick google-fu is failing me with actual numbers, but I would not be surprised if we are using 3/4/5 orders of magnitude of water every year compared to 3000 years ago.