@xaquko9718

6 months ago

Great video overall, however I'd like to point out a couple of things: First, deforestation during the 15th and 16th centuries was driven by agricultural expansion rather than shipbuilding. Galleon construction required indeed a lot of wood but it also required that supply to be sustainable during a long time (as fleets had to be replenished, repaired, upgraded and expanded). Spanish shipbuilders knew this and relied on silviculture rather than mindlessly clearing forests for logging, overexplotaition of forests was rare. Also, only minor and auxiliary vessels were actually built in Spain using spanish wood, most of the larger warships were built in the Caribbean using native resources. This coincided in time with a growth on spanish population and a significant expansion of agriculture. Most forests were cleared so the land could be used for crop production or cattle grazing. Second, "reforestation" during Franco's dictatorship is a more complicated topic than it appears in the video. Non-native species of trees were introduced for either pulp and paper production (mainly on the mediteranean coast), or to create "dehesas" for recreational use or cattle grazing (mainly in the interior of the peninsula). Main problem is the species used (besides having no ecological continuity) consume much higher amounts of water than native trees, leading to dessecation and soil degradation. This causes the local ecosystems to degrade and destabilize (often to the point of collapse) and sets up the perfect conditions for catastrophic wildfires. Species used for pulp and paper production have the added problem that they act as "fuel" as they're highly flammable, which facilitates ignition and spread of fires.

258 |