What are we to make of the Columbian Exchange? It devastated the population of the Americas, it led to the widespread slavery of Africans, but it also allowed for a worldwide population increase and the lives of some Natives including Plains tribes like the Lakota became better and more secure, at least for a while.Fewer people have starved since the Columbian Exchange began, but the diversity of life on Earth has diminished dramatically and planting crops where they don’t belong has hurt the environment.So on the whole, should we be grateful for the Columbian Exchange? And should we work to continue and deepen its legacy of globalism and monoculture?Crosby didn’t think we were better off. “The Columbian Exchange has included man, and he has changed the Old and New Worlds sometimes inadvertently, sometimes intentionally, often brutally. It is possible that he and the plants and animals he brings with him have caused the extinction of more species of life forms in the last four hundred years than the usual processes of evolution might kill off in a million... The Columbian Exchange has left us with not a richer but a more impoverished genetic pool. We, all of the life on the planet, are the less for Columbus, and the impoverishment will increase.“But let’s give you the last word today: Do you agree with Crosby? Are longer, healthier lives for more humans worth the sacrifice of an impoverished biosphere? And most importantly, how will your conclusions about those questions shape the way that you live your life?Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next week.