“People had initially believed that axing American’s wilderness into fields had improved its climate, as summers apparently became cooler and winters less harsh.
“[North Carolinian] Hugh Williamson, for example — one of the delegates who had visited Bartram’s garden during the Constitutional Convention — had, in 1770, told the members of the American Philosophical Society that forests created an air ‘charged with a gross putrescent fluid,’ creating a desperately unhealthy atmosphere for mankind.”
— From “Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation“ by Andrea Wulf (2012)
Well into the 21st century, scientists and politicians are still debating tree pollution.