There are three societies that have had a large impact on the environment, the hunter-gatherers, agricultural and industrial societies. Each of these three societies have effected the environment in its species diversity, stability, cycling of minerals, energy flow, population control and effects on the water cycle. Then environment has changed a great deal from the beginning of the time of the first intelligent humans, about 125 thousand years ago. Hunter-gatherers effected the species diversity by changing the distribution of plants as they moved from location to location.
They carried seeds of plants in one area, with them to the next area they settled and spread plant diversification. They also had the possibility of hunting animal species to extinction. But this is not a proven fact and may have been caused by changes in climate from the Ice Age. The agricultural society clear-cut a lot of land in order to make room for their crops to be planted and thus effected the tree population by severely decreasing it. Clear-cutting of the tropical rainforest for wood and farm land and of land used for the increase in necessity of space for the increase of inhabitants for the industrialists significantly decreased the amount of plants and organisms.
The Term Paper on Golf Course Effects On Environment
There are many things that have an affect on the environment such as erosion, gases in the air, the population growing so rapidly that the environment cannot sustain what we have, and many others. But how many people look at golf courses and think of the effect that the courses being built and sustained has on the environment. Most people would say that golf courses are good for the environment ...
In the tropical rainforest, where there is the most diverse amount of species, the amount of organisms that are now extinct as a result add up to millions. The stability of the hunter-gatherer population was very stabile. They purposefully kept the population from growing by practices such as abstinence, abortion, infanticide, late marriage and late weaning. Those who were born had a long life-expectancy because of their healthy diet and exercise. During the agricultural revolution, the population became unstable and the population sky-rocketed. The need for children was strong for the help around the farm.
Natural disasters and weather caused the agricultural dependant society to have large losses in population because there was no backup plan for food. The stability of the industrialists are more stabile that of the agriculturists, but still are not stable because people are unhealthy when it comes to food and the amount of children can still sometimes be very high although there is no need for the large numbers in relation to survival. The minerals in the areas that the hunter-gatherers inhabited were not greatly effected because although they used resources around them, they were replaceable and were not used to the extent of extinction. The agriculturists started effecting the mineral cycle because of the soil erosion by settling large areas of land. The industrialist effected the minerals by using them for food, health, and various other reasons. The energy that hunter-gatherers used came from natural resources such as replaceable wood and sunlight.
These things did not have a large impact on the environment because both are not limited resources. Most of the energy that the agricultural society used, also came from wood and sunlight, with the addition of running water for electricity. People in the industrial society started using fossil fuels as a source of energy. Fossil fuels are not replaceable and there is a limited supply of them, greatly decreasing the source that industrialists depend on for energy. The population of the hunter-gatherers was controlled by the rustic living conditions which led to the survival of the physically fit and things such as disease that had no cure and the fact that there wasn’t much need for children, other than to prevent extinction. There was no population control within the agricultural society because the use of children was very important in the success of farmers and they were also need for inheriting property.
The Essay on Is Population Control Necessary?
Recently, I saw a documentary which featured the problems of overpopulation in The Third World countries. After watching the programme, I realise that it is everybody’s essential responsibility to confront and address the problems of an expanding world population. This is necessary because we live on the same planet and share the same resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Population ...
Population is controlled by birth control in the industrial age, except for in some areas of the world where they are not educated about it or for those who chose not to use it. Birth control is way for people to control when they are to have children and how many. There is still a constant increase of population occurring every day. The effect that the hunter-gatherers had on the water cycle came from the waste products of the people. The waste went straight into local water systems and quickly polluted them and disease struck the organisms that inhabited and drank the water. The agricultural society polluted their water with the half of the fertilizer they used being run-off.
Also, in the United States, 80 percent of the freshwater was used for irrigation purposes for crops, which caused large water shortages. Since the soil was eroded from the crops, there was also an increase of floods. Industrialists burn coal and other fossil fuels and create pollution that gets into the water systems by acid rain. There is also run-off from existing farms and the introduction of man made pollutants that are not biodegradable, such as plastics, that will stay with us on the earth forever. All three societies effected some of the six characteristics that humans have changed to the natural environment. The stability and control of population has effected the amount of natural resources and state of the environment.
Without stability and control of the human population, the state of the environment has a tendency to be on a downfall without education and organized ways to stop the destruction.
