A new study has confirmed what anyone who's ever spent five minutes in a Whole Foods parking lot already knows: that the Amazon rainforest is still totally messed up by all the humans who lived there hundreds of years ago. Because, let's be real, those ancient civilizations were basically just like us, but with better headdresses and more aggressive deforestation policies.
Researchers used "cutting-edge spatial modeling" to study the forest, which is code for "we looked at some old maps and tree rings." And what did they find? That all those centuries of human activity – including colonialism, slavery, and reckless resource extraction – have left behind a legacy of biodiversity that's still totally screwed up.
It turns out that areas near major rivers (where, coincidentally, the colonizers liked to settle) are now home to an abundance of tree species that were once favored by humans. Because who needs "natural" forests when you can just plant what your great-great-grandfather liked to eat?
The study also found that certain trees have declined in regions where they were over-exploited during the colonial era – because, you know, people being jerks to the environment is a thing that happens.
The researchers are all like, "We need to account for these ancient and colonial legacies when making conservation plans," which is just code for "We need to apologize to the trees for what our ancestors did."