Human Environmental Impact in the Paleolithic and Neolithic

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Human Environmental Impact

The Lost Woodlands of Ancient Nasca

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Beresford-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
El Niño ◽  
New World ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Desert Ecosystem ◽  
Human Environmental Impact

This book presents an archaeological case of prehistoric human environmental impact: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 750 bc and culminating in a collapse during the Middle Horizon, around ad 900. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley — today depopulated and bereft of cultivation and yet with archaeological remains attesting to substantial prehistoric occupations — thereby presenting a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. Previous archaeological interpretations of cultural changes in the region rely heavily on climatic factors such as El Niño floods and long droughts. While the archaeological, geomorphological, and archaeobotanical records presented here do indeed include new evidence of huge ancient flood events, they also demonstrate the significance of more gradual, human-induced destruction of Prosopis pallida (huarango) riparian dry-forest. The huarango is a remarkable leguminous hardwood that lives for over a millennium and provides forage, fuel, and food. Moreover, it is crucial to the integration of a fragile desert ecosystem, enhancing microclimate and soil fertility and moisture. Its removal exposed this landscape to the effects of El Niño climatic perturbations long before Europeans arrived in Peru. This case study therefore contradicts the popular perception that Native Americans inflicted barely perceptible disturbance upon a New World Eden. Yet, it also records correlations between changes in society and degrees of human environmental impact. These allow inferences about the specific contexts in which significant human environmental impacts in the New World did, and did not, arise.

scholarly journals Climate Change Inaction and Meaning

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Philip J. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Absolute Size ◽  
Professional Duty ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Environmental Limits ◽  
Human Environmental Impact

Continuing growth, insofar as it increases human environmental impact, is in conflict with the environment. ‘Green growth’, if it increases the absolute size of the economy, is an oxymoron. Environmental limits are discountenanced, a pretence made possible because they are difficult to specify in advance. The consequent weakness in public discourse, both moral and intellectual, has worsened into contradiction as it has become ever more studiously unadmitted. It is obscured with language that is misleading or self-contradictory, and even issues from institutions that exist (and are relied upon) to respect correctness. At its most conforming it gives rise to overshoot, by which statements meant to sound authoritative are in fact open to ridicule. Such untruthfulness perpetuates climate change inaction, and in a kind of direct action those using such language, contrary to their public or professional duty, could be asked to justify themselves in plain English.

Need for a New Paradigm

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Catton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
The Web ◽  
Human Environmental Impact

To confront the probable future without becoming obsolete, sociology needs a new paradigm, for its traditional notion of the nature of its subject-matter precludes asking certain vital questions, makes important hypotheses inconceivable, and stigmatizes essential lines of inquiry. Humans are involved in the web of life, yet sociologists following Durkheim disregard nonsocial facts as explanations of social facts. To understand major social change caused by transition from abundance to scarcity, we have to see how modern technology has enlarged human resource demands and human environmental impact. We have to learn to think in terms of carrying capacity and use a larger time frame. We have to ask some ecological questions, such as how long this planet can tolerate industrialism and what are the prerequisites of a sustainable society.

The stratigraphic status of the Anthropocene

The Holocene ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 1491-1494 ◽  
Author(s):  
SJ Gale ◽  
PG Hoare
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Anthropogenic Soils ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Preservation Potential ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequences ◽  
Human Environmental Impact

The term Anthropocene was coined to describe the present geological epoch, in which human activity dominates many of the processes acting on the surface of the Earth. The expression has been widely adopted, but remains informal and lacks precise definition. There have been several attempts to establish formal stratigraphic markers to define the start of the Anthropocene. Most recently, Certini and Scalenghe (Certini G and Scalenghe R (2011) Anthropogenic soils are the golden spikes for the Anthropocene. The Holocene 21: 1269–1274) have argued that the best markers are anthropogenic soils and that these may be used to identify the base of the Anthropocene in stratigraphic sequences. Unfortunately, soils fail to meet many of the criteria required for the establishment of stratigraphic ‘golden spikes’. Their preservation potential is poor, many stratigraphically important environments do not experience pedogenesis and anthrosols do not always provide the stratigraphically lowest marker of human impact. In addition, there are practical and theoretical difficulties in defining the base of anthrosols and thus in identifying the start of the Anthropocene. More generally, the worldwide diachroneity of human impact makes it impossible to establish a single chronological datum for the epoch, raising questions about the value of stratigraphic methods in defining the base of the Anthropocene. More significantly, much of the work undertaken on the Anthropocene lies beyond stratigraphy, and a stratigraphic definition of this epoch may be unnecessary, constraining and arbitrary. It is not clear for practical purposes whether there is any real need for a golden spike at the base of the Anthropocene. The global stratigraphic approach may prove of limited utility in studies of human environmental impact.

scholarly journals Sustainable development : characteristics and interpretations

1999 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Zaccaï
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Free Market Economy ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Process Technology ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Human Environmental Impact

Abstract. This paper characterizes the main elements of «sustainable development» (SD) based on the current literature. On the premise of population growth and human environmental impact as central problems of development policy the multisectoral and multidimensional approach to sustainable development is discussed. According to this, –Environmental protection has to be an integral part of the development process –Technology will play a major role in the implementa¬ tion of SD –SD may be compatible with the free market economy –SD seeks «inter-» and «intra-» generational equit –SD requires changes in awareness and ethic –Achieving SD means the involvement of private and public sectors at all levels. It is shown that these characteristics currently are subject to interpretations that go beyond the scope of SD.

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