The roof of the world should be covered in trees. Today, Tibet is mainly covered by desert pasture, but it was likely once adorned with cypress forest, which was destroyed by local inhabitants over the past 4600 years.
Georg Miehe of the University of Marburg in Germany and colleagues analysed climate data, pollen records and ancient soil samples from around Lhasa.
They suggest that not only is the climate, with plenty of rainfall, little permanent frost or snow and good mean temperatures through the growing season, most suited to forest growth, but that people burnt down trees to make way…
