Forest Development The Indian Way Essay

For a majority of Earth’s history, its populous has been free to roam and live off of the land, maintaining a balance between the habitat and its inhabitants. However, as technology develops the earth is placed at an even bigger disequilibrium. In the places where massive sequoias reigned, high-rise apartments now stand. Just as water rushed through rivers, cars drive down streets. The populants of Earth continue to innovate, industrialize,and urbanize, but at what cost?

The affect of environmental issues occur everyday and in particular deforestation is becoming a highly ranked subject. From animals to the human race, the alacrity of trees that are cut down affects every individual in a variety of ways. Not only do people need to help the planet but they need to help themselves and further generations to come, such as children and grandchildren because these natural resources that are being taken away from society are as well shaping the future. For comprehensible reasons, forests use to make up the world, until man made creatures started to destroy and destruct the most important supply to human kind which are trees. Trees are crucial to every living entity for the reason of providing oxygen to all.

“The Wreck of Time,” written by Annie Dillard, illustrates societies battle with population. Dillard emphasizes the disasters that savage our world. According to the author, “ By moderate figures, the dead outnumber us about fourteen to one. The dead will always outnumber the living.” (Dillard 168) The amount of natural or man-made catastrophes do not affect the population as much as we claim. Dillards opinions are supported with facts throughout her essay, but readers are still left to question, why is our world considered to be overpopulated? Perhaps it is time for our society to consider Earth is not overpopulated in terms of people, but in resources. In addition, humans are struggling to grasp that other ecosystems are also being affected. With the introduction of Darwinism (the theory of evolution, by natural selections), humans are programed with the mentality of “survival of the fittest” forcing our humanity to evolve. Although evolution proved to be beneficial, as our immune system and way of life improved, we sacrificed our natural resources along the way. The problem with our society is not the lack of knowledge, but the ignorance and selfishness within our society. Overpopulation, threatened by the lack of resources, intimidates humans to disrupt biodiversity as we know it. (1) Man-made changes jeopardize our biodiversity. (2) As a result, the Earth’s resources are being depleted due to rapid consumption. (3) Even though we lack resources,

The transition from the traditional hunter gatherer societies, in to an agriculture based living system, has allowed humans to increase their population size, putting strains on the Earth’s environment. Agriculture has also brought along with it a decrease in women’s roles in the community, while also bringing about a class system where the wealthy rule, and were the weak and poor obey. As humans began to domesticate more plants and animals, they settled in permanent areas. The Change from hunter gatherer benefited few, but had dire consequences for the earth and groups with in it. One such consequence was the population increase, which has lead to major issues throughout history, and one that has ties to current global issues.

Dr. Forsyth implements plenty of evidence as well as proven statistics to back up his outlook on these issues. The growth of human population is happening at an exponential rate, implying that in a short period of time population growth will double. “We find it difficult to comprehend exponential growth, but it may prove to be our fatal blind spot” [3]. When analysing the world’s population over a long period of time, it took roughly 19,000 years for the world’s population to go from 5million people to 500 million people in 1500 A.D. [4] With an estimated population of 7.5 billion people [5], for a period less than 1000 years, population increased more than 1500 times its size than it was in the 1500’s. In addition, on a more minute scale of time, in 1950 the world’s population was roughly 2.5 billion people [6] in merely 50 years the world’s population has tripled. With these statics, it is evident that the world’s population is increasing at an incomprehensive rate. With populations at their peak, overconsumption is another problem this world faces, as Dr. Forsyth affirms “humans consume far more than their fair share of the Earth’s natural productivity.”[7] Due to this over consumption of resources, there is a vast demand for cheap food which results in the clear cutting of large forest to generate room for new plantations of food. When doing so, humans destroy habitats that

No matter how many people do claim overpopulation is not a relevant issue, it very much is because of the simple fact that starvation and pollution are very real and existing issues that are ultimately offset by overpopulation. In an article titled “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem,” author Erle C. Ellis uses the analogy “Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences,” to argue that overpopulation is not a problem by stating the opposing claim. “We are nothing like bacteria in a petri dish,” Mr. Ellis solemnly asserts, “...these claims demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems. The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain

The problem we have now in the present day is too much deforestation. We have to realize that getting rid of these trees and habitats just to keep modernizing the world is not good for the environment. Yes, of course we need homes, jobs, and service buildings; however, we can use old vacant building and remodel. It is not necessary to build new. If only we used what we already have, we can save many trees, as well as habitats. I do understand that we may be able to plant new trees; nevertheless it takes years for them to

“If we satisfy a growing population’s need for food, we necessarily decrease its per capita supply of the other resources needed by men” (Hardin, Pg. 84). Hardin also points out that food is going to be significantly increased to meet a demand due to the overloading population, so what are going to do about the environment? For example, studies show that India’s population increases by 15 million each year. The

Overpopulation can damage or even destroy the environment. The need for resources will grow with the population, but natural resources will not be produced at a fast enough pace. Man may try to produce the resources they need themselves but will there be enough space? According to Young the average person needs a minimum of 100 square feet to feel comfortable in a living space (“How Much Space Do You Really Need?”). Using the estimated population size of 2050, human living space will take up 43.8 billion square feet. Assuming most of these people live in apartment buildings so there is room for farming. Farms will need to switch out crops every year to slow down the process of soil degradation.

In his essay Hardin discusses how the rapid decline of the world’s common places, such as natural animal pastures, are the result of rapid, uncontrolled human population growth. Hardin suggests that environmental problems such as deforestation, crowding out of native species, loss of resources, pollution, poor job economy, etc., are the result of the loss of common spaces. He indicated that common spaces used to be plentiful enough for every person to have an abundant share, but that was when the human population was smaller than the current population of 7 billion people. Hardin’s powerful essay proposes many solutions and methods for solving the ever increasing tragedy of the commons.

Pierre Clastres a French anthropologist spent around 2 years in Paraguay living with the indigenous people, the Guayaki Indians in the early 1960’s. The Guayaki where hunter gatherers whose lives were changing quickly with the help of colonialism. During Clastres time with them, he described their rituals, myths, history, and culture. While I was reading his accounts with them in the “Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians” I notice with all the war, killing, treatment of the natives, and let's not forget the cannibalism. I do have to say that what did peak my interest was how the Guayaki tribe practiced polyandry and the reason why they had to do so. So, otherwise than answering a question that book already does. I will be putting the answers together to make one big answer that you can read right here than look and piece them together as you read the book.

This landscape was generally limited by the capabilities of the domesticated plants and animals that were available. For this reason, archaeological studies have discovered that “generalized foraging adaptation that incorporated natural plant products as the basis of the calories and supplemented this vegetative base with animal protein obtained by hunting wild game” (Storey 2011, p. 5). This demonstrates the importance of combining traditional foraging and hunting with the domestication of plants and animals in order to maintain the necessary supply of produce for the societies of the time. Because of this, the plants were considered important due to specific purposes that they had in mind. In the tropical regions of Panama, this was the most efficient means of

America’s Old Growth Forests are an endangered resource that is quickly disappearing. The ancient forests are being unnecessarily wasted, and are growing smaller and smaller with each passing moment.

Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Forests make up a large percentage of the globe. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath, determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. The wood from the forests are used everyday form many useful resources. Moreover, thinning the forests increases the amount of available light, nutrients and water for the remaining trees. Deforestation (forest thinning) is one of the most

Deforestation is a major global problem with serious consequences to the planet. These consequences have a negative effect on the climate, biodiversity, the atmosphere and threatens the cultural and physical survival of life. Deforestation is the permanent destruction of indigenous forests and woodlands. It has resulted in the reduction of indigenous forests to four-fifths of their pre-agricultural area, so that now indigenous forests cover only 21% of the earth's land surface. The world Resources Institute regards deforestation as one of the worlds most pressing land use problem.