Abstract:
Latest research on the greenhouse effect during Han Dynasty in journal Nature revealed
that it can be quantitatively inferred and verified in a consumption perspective of firewood and charcoal
from social forests. During Han Dynasty, as conventional pressures faced in forest resources, multiple
fields such as ordinary people, people in palace and offices, metallurgical industry, ceramics and salt
industry, tombs system and charcoal industry consumed the firewood and charcoal. Based on the current
research achievements and relevant archaeological data as well as quantitatively estimating the possible
scale of conventional consumption, we not only verified the historic records about the shortages of forest
resources in some regions, but also more completely understood the climate changes from warm to cold
and the frequent natural disasters in the transient period between West Han Dynasty and East Han
Dynasty.