Marsh's Physical Degradation

The boundaries between maintenance and the expansion of humanity should be known clearly by everyone, because nature is so unpredictable yet fragile that we should not be continuing to develop and expand blindly. One individual who shares such sentiment is Michael Pollan, in his book “The Idea of a Garden” he talked about a massive tornado which devastated a familiar forest of pines in New England. In the aftermath of this natural disaster, there was a debate about how they were going to clean up such a mess. Two solutions were provided, the first was to let nature as it is and not bother to replace anything that was lost. The second solution was make a huge overhaul, and cut down everything in the forest in order to plant new trees, as a result their descendants can enjoy the radiance that once was. The common theme was that

Human interactions with the environment in the early settlements were somewhat disastrous as the settlers believed that the climates of Europe would parlay to the New World. This was most evidenced in the Jamestown settlement. Many settlers, unaware of the unhealthy James River estuary during summer months, fell ill and/or died as a result of disease normally associated with drinking from a polluted water source. The settlers believed in settled farming, basically clearing the land and farming (planting crops and raising animals). Along with the problem estuary of the James this had a profound impact on the land they inhabited, some good and some bad. Animals such as the horse, sheep, cattle and pigs, to name a few, were introduced to the new world which impacted the environment. Most were grazing animals, meaning that they would feed on the plant life (mostly grasses and weeds). These animals would clear lands forcing herders to move to more fertile ground constantly. The good of this was that the animals would introduce accidentally new plant life (grasses typically) that sometimes would kill, or even move,

Throughout history people have changed their environment to meet their needs these changes have had both positive and negative effects on people, societies, and regions. These change to the environment are needed first for the aztecs because the aztec built their capital in a middle of a lake then they had to expand but they could not feed all the people so when they built chinampas it help the aztec give more food to their people. That did not feed all their people so The Aztecs also implemented terrace agriculture in hilly areas, or areas that could not be used for level ground farming. In the valleys irrigation farming was used. Dams diverted water from natural springs to the fields. This allowed for harvests on a regular basis. the ancient

We all know that earth was changed through the ages. We’ve gone from nothing to dinosaurs, humans, and wars. We’ve, as a race have used and adapted to our environment to meet our needs, such as food and water. We started farming, using domestic animals, and storing the food. The lives of people of the ancient world were shaped by the geography of their region because it affects the amount of food produced, the accessibility to water, and their ease at which to find shelter.

The topsoil dried up. Crops were destroyed as the horrified farmers watched. U-S-History.com says how “The water levels of lakes dropped by five feet or more.” Since the farmers plowed all the plains years earlier, all that there was left was dry, loose, dirt.

With so many people mining for gold and trying to find as much as they can, new technology was invented to make the process easier and more efficient. Before this new gold-mining technology, many miners would dam up rivers to make their findings easier and supply water during dry months, or the rivers would become blocked with deposits and sediments, effectively changing the rivers for animals and plants. Along with that, the need for wood and lumber increased so the forest changed with more and more trees cut down to create canals. The land was essentially torn up just in the miner quest for gold. With the invention of hydraulic mining came one of the most disastrous effects on the state’s physical environment. Before workers would only dam up rivers, but with this machine, mountainsides and other areas were torn up,

Desertification typically occurs as a result of poor management by human populations. In earlier times of history, desertification was not seen as a widespread issue, because most humans led hunter-gatherer lifestyles that caused them to frequently relocate. Thus, the land was not populated for enough time for it to become overgrazed by livestock or depleted of nutrients by over-farming and deforestation. However, in more recent history, desertification has become much more significant as agriculture-based societies became more widespread and the need to produce as much as many goods as possible overrode the need to conserve Earth’s

How did the interaction between people and the environment shape the physical landscapes of the West in particular?

In contrast, the natural environment and wild animals were negatively impacted by human activities. Burning forests in untouched land made low nutritional soil. As a result of this, erosion took many areas and made empty fields. Also, wild animals lost their habitat because forests were disappearing and people changed landscapes. People were looking only at benefits to improve their lives, and therefore wild animals would not be considered.

The civilizations that thrived prior to the arrival of the Europeans, employed many complex agricultural methods that benefited organisms within their ecosystems, in addition to erecting magnificent metropolises. The most common agricultural methods included “slash and char” in densely forested regions, terracing on steep hillsides and milpas-small plots-found in lower wetlands. “Slash and char” a term dubbed by Christopher Steiner-a soil scientist from the University of Bayreuth- created “terra preta” a very nutrient rich soil that increases the fertility of the land and provides habitats for a diverse variety of microorganisms (Mann 345-346). Other features like the “forested islands” in the Beni (Mann 344), and the “fallows” in the Amazon (Mann 286) were anthropogenic creations mistaken for geological landforms due to lack of examination of the degrading man-made ceramics in the mounds, which indicate they were produced by an advanced civilization. Although Milpa’s and terracing were managed differently than the regions where terra preta transformed infertile areas into old-growth orchards called “fallows,” all three methods fortified the soil quality and manipulated crops to amplify productivity in order to support major populations. Without large-scale agricultural systems, a massive society could not have existed. Another key line of evidence supporting this idea, that Indians sculpted their own environment, is perhaps the most visible. Pyramids and plazas akin to ones in Teotihuacan and Huaricanga would not exist

Then, in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein was under the impression that enemy soldiers were hiding under the cover that the marshlands could provide for them, and killed all of the plant life by draining out all of the water with canals that prevented the water from flowing. This lack of water and man-made

Because the climate and environmental conditions vary in all parts of the world, the emergence of the agriculture happened at different times and happened in different ways. Due to the last Ice Age, many large mammals and vegetation were pushed to extinction. Sooner than the other areas, the tropical and temperate regions of the world started developing warmer, wetter, and more stable conditions where many animals and more wild plants could flourish. Technological agricultural advances in tools, like sickles, were produced to help with the new vegetation.

We destroyed animal habitats, wiped out vegetation and displaced native people that depended on forests and the natural land to survive. We have become so careless of our land but we forgot we were citizens of the land in the first place. Some countries exceeded the carrying capacity and overpopulated the land. Wiping out vegetation and leading to deforestation and desertification.

Soil exhaustion added to these climatic problems. Although the three-field system had slowed this process, generations of intensive farming had simply drained

The damage is widespread. For kilometres all to be seen is blackened trunks and shrivelled leaves consumed by the smoky breath of fire. Looking closely, it could be conceived that each individual tree appears scarred; trunks reduced to charcoal, with dying embers glowing incandescently. But after time, the landscape changes. Green shoots poke up through the ground; worming their way towards the sunlight. Ferns tendril from the hollows of blackened trees, bringing life back into a landscape that was made so desolate by the searing flames. The rebirth has begun and these new plants will flourish and form a new, widespread landscape more rich and full of life than its predecessor.