article_snippet: But British researchers have now pinpointed 1610 because of the impact felt by an irreversible transfer of crops and species between the New and Old Worlds.
article_snippet: British researchers have now pinpointed 1610 because of the impact felt by an irreversible transfer of crops and species between the New and Old Worlds the New and Old Worlds .
article_snippet: Comparing the major environmental impacts of human activity over the past 50,000 years against these two formal requirements just two dates were in the running - 1610 when the impact of the discovery of The Americas began to be felt and 1964.
article_snippet: Scientists said the 1492 arrival of Europeans in The Americas, and subsequent global trade, moved species to new continents and oceans on an unprecedented level, resulting in a global re-ordering of life on Earth.
article_snippet: Many historians regard agricultural imports into Europe from the vast new lands of the Americas, alongside the availability of coal, as the two essential precursors of the Industrial Revolution, which in turn unleashed further waves of global environmental changes. '
article_snippet: Scientists said the 1492 arrival of Europeans in the Americas (pictured), and global trade, moved species to new continents and oceans on an unprecedented level, resulting in a global re-ordering of life on Earth .
highlights_snippet: Date was decided on because of the impact felt by the transfer of crops .
  
highlights_snippet: Arrival of smallpox saw 50 million native north and South Americans die .
  