Week Two - Chapters 1, 2, & 3

It is truly amazing that we have continued to be our own worst enemy when it comes to the environment.  It was not until reading these chapters that I received a much clearer picture that we consistently have taken the earth for granted while at the same time needing what it produces for survival.  Animals, plants, and the environment have been decimated time and time again under the guise of creating more or making it better.

As hunters and gathers humans took from nature what was necessary and then moved as the seasons changed or as food became scarce.  This allowed the land they previously inhabited to rehabilitate and replenish.  Due to their nomadic culture the group remained small and their possessions were limited to what could be carried.

Unfortunately, someone got the bright idea of trying to fix what wasn’t broken.  In an effort to manipulate what was already being provided, the Paleothic population began to use unnatural forces to encourage better outcomes.  Setting fires to one species of plant to encourage the growth of another is one example of what may have seemed like a good idea at the time.  I do not believe any thought was given to what its true long term impacts would have been.  However, when you have a life expectancy of around 35 years there probably isn’t much thought given to the next generation.

These practices continued throughout the agricultural revolution whereupon humans became more stagnate and still wanted more for less.  As civilizations developed they abandoned their nomadic ways and were then forced to come up with a source of food for a now growing population.  Populations inland used various form of irrigation to grow food.  In the Indus Valley this practice decimated the region by introducing salt into the soil.  This in turn resulted in lower crop yields.  Lower production meant less food for the local population.  With no continued source of produce available to them, they chose to vacate and move on to another tract of land so they could start the process all over again.

Thousands and thousands of years have taught us nothing.  Throughout time we have held onto the belief that getting what you can today is more important than where our source may be tomorrow.

Oil companies continue to slash and burn the dense forests of South America to increase profits.  This is done without any consideration to the people that have lived there for thousands of years.  Corporations like Monsanto genetically alter what we already produce enough of in an effort to produce even more despite the unknown risks to our own health or the impact their effort will have on the environment. 

All the while, we claim to want to preserve those areas of the earth that we have not already destroyed.  We can’t have it both ways.  Either we learn to live and survive with less, or face risk of there being nothing less in the future.