Using a climate-vegetation model, pastoralism in fact likely slowed the deterioration of orbitally-driven climate change.

Evidence

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara - PMC (PubMed Central (PMC))

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Desertification forced ancient humans to domesticate cattle as a food resource. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 162; Pastoralism spread across the Sahara while it was still well-watered, and may have delayed desertification. — Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara; Increasing human population and sustainable pastoralism did not accelerate—and may even have delayed—the decline of the Green Sahara. — Humans delayed the onset of the Sahara desert by 500 years

Related

• Pastoralism spread across the Sahara while it was still well-watered, and may have delayed desertification. (similarity 0.90)
• Increasing human population and sustainable pastoralism did not accelerate—and may even have delayed—the decline of the Green Sahara. (similarity 0.90)
• Pastoralism blossomed in the Sahara from around 1000 years before collapse; humans may have held back the Sahara desert by around 500 years. (similarity 0.88)
• Around 4000 BP a climate change leading to desertification of the Sahara forced cattle and pastoralists southward. (similarity 0.87)
• The transition to desert would have happened about 500 years earlier without the influence of hunter-gatherers and cattle-herders. (similarity 0.84)
• Pastoralism itself is argued to enhance devegetation and regime shifts in unbalanced ecosystems, contributing to desertification. (similarity 0.84)
• Desertification forced ancient humans to domesticate cattle as a food resource. (similarity 0.80)