" There is some interesting new research15 that suggests that the Little Ice Age might have been caused in part by reforestation after the genocide of native people in the Americas. Following Christopher Columbus’s first voyage, Europeans killed about 90 percent of the indigenous population, either directly or by spreading disease. The dead stopped farming, and trees started to grow back, reducing CO2 concentrations enough to cause a global cooling. "

― Sylvain Neuvel , A History of What Comes Next (Take Them to the Stars #1)