European 's have had a far more devastating effect on the local environment. Being agriculturalists, large pieces…
The European mariners discover the Americas in the late15th century. This led to their domination of trade and growth of transoceanic empires along the Atlantic coast. The Europeans were stunned by the distinctive “flora, fauna, and human cultures” they found in the new world. These differences were changed by the newcomers because of the invasion of colonists, plants, and livestock which changed the biological and cultural differences held by the boundary set with the Atlantic Ocean.…
Christoff, P. & Eckersley, R. (2013) Globalization and the Environment. Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.…
When Europeans landed in the Americas they brought along the staples of their daily lives in Europe and introduced them into a new world environment. Colin Calloway discusses some of theses staples in the first chapter of his novel “New Worlds For All”. The European importation of wildlife is an example of a change brought about by European contact. The English and Dutch imported animals such as honeybees, cattle pigs, horses and cats. Among other accidental imports lay more malicious and harmful species such as rats, field mice and cockroaches. The introduction of European bird species such as sparrows and starlings created competition for habitat with indigenous species. Many of these changes in wildlife were witnessed by the native cultures without ever coming into physical contact with Europeans. To quote historian Karen Kupperman “Probably no European after the very first explorers ever saw an excusivley American meadow. Birds and animals took up seeds carried in the holds of ships and in the guts of animals and spread them far beyond frontier contact.” The spread of western biology created a more diverse ecosystem. The introduction of new species to the Americas was a double edged sword, while it created more food sources it also changed otherwise stable ecosystems. In the big…
In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from the Eastern coast of Europe seeking to find a shorter passage to what He believed would lead him to the Indies. Yet, in his quest for the Indies, Columbus stumbled on a land far greater and completely breathtaking…the Americas. Although Columbus and his crew were well aware of what they discovered, at least to a certain extent (they eventually realized they were not in the Indies); Columbus and his fellow men could not have possibly predicted the profound impacts their discovery would have on the environment of the Americas. Little did Columbus know that the Americas would truly open a door to a whole New World. Even more importantly, Columbus could not have predicted that the founding of the Americas would close the door to an already established world native to millions of people. Donald Worster, in his essay “The Nature We Have Lost” argues that “the real forces of change” in American environmental history are rooted in Euro-American culture. Yet, this claim is far too simplistic and ignores many of the other factors which played an integral role in changing the environmental history of the Americas. It ignores the fact that the European people were ready for a fresh new start in the “land-o-plenty”; it ignores the importance of their attitudes towards the environment and the natives, it severely downplays the introduction of many biological factors, some unintentional. It even ignores how deforestation had a profound impact on the environment. Worster virtually ignores the evidence of how a combination of all these factors gave them a sufficient advantage in claiming the land that once belonged to a people who had inherited it centuries ago. This trifecta of factors led to possibly the greatest environmental shift that the world had ever experienced.…
Humanity has immensely impacted the environment both in negative and positive ways. In order to grasp the ecological crisis our Earth is experiencing we must revisit the way humans have viewed our relationship with through technological, religious and scientific lenses. The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, an article published in the journal Science in 1967 and written by Lynn White Jr, looks back through the history and the ways in which “all forms of life modify their context” (The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, White, Lynn…
(1) Introduction: The Early Development of Environmental Ethics: If putting out natural non man made fires, culling animals and or killing off some individual members of overpopulated indigenous species was necessary for the protection and the integrity of a certain ecosystem. Would these actions be legal morally permissible or even required? Is it morally acceptable for farmers in non-industrial countries to practice “slash and burn” techniques to clear areas for agriculture? Beginning in the early 1960s, the questioning and rethinking of the relationship of human beings with the natural environment reflected an already widespread perception in that the late twentieth century faced a “population time bomb” and a serious series of environmental crisis. Historian Lynn White Jr, wrote an article called “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”, on a much-cited essay published in 1967 on the historical roots of the environmental crisis argues that the main strands of Judeo-Christian thinking had encouraged the overexploitation of nature by maintaining the superiority of humans over all other forms of life on…
Squatriti, P. (2002). [Book review]. [Review of Something new under the sun: An environmental history of the twentieth-century world]. The Historian, 64(3-4), 874. Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http://find.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/itx/start.do?prodId=ITOF…
Biodiversity includes multiple flora fauna and animal species. Increasing pollution due to activities encouraged by globalization are severely affecting many species, even those which are on the verge of extinction. Globalization activities are polluting and degrading the quality of air, soil, and water that are inherently essential for the survival of many species in diverse biosphere of earth. The effects are clear when Ehrenfeld quotes “Occasionally, pressures of globalisation can be shown to be causally related to the loss of a particular kind of domestic livestock, as in the case of the near demise of Haiti's Creole pigs” (Ehrenfeld). These impacts are escalating the damage that is almost irreversible, leading to loss of resources to humans for their perpetual survival. Increase in factories, production plants, using hazardous materials in production, throwing off waste materials that harm the environment are some of the activities that affect the biodiversity in turn affecting the possibility of human species to keep extracting resources at free will and without restrictions. Air pollution, waste disposal, water and soil pollution and deterioration are by-products of activities that are purely based on the implementation of globalization. Is this not self-sabotage, where capitalists ignore the dire consequences and irreversible impacts of their activities on biodiversity and the global ecological environment? Are they not liable for the direct and indirect damages being persistently caused to the environment? Can globalization continue without incorporating the social, environmental, and biological costs of its own growth? Globalization has been ignoring large scale impacts on biodiversity due entirely to the inexpressiveness of various species and the…
However, hunting is not the only reason why there has been a sharp increase in animal extinction. Pollution and other hazardous waste have destroyed the natural habitats of many animals. Not only has it stripped them from their homes, but it has deprived them of food and a clean water supply. All these factors have lead to the extinction of a plethora of animals.…
Module Length: 6 hours Sustainability and Globalization ..................................................................................................... 1 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Learning Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 2 Glossary .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Lesson Plans.................................................................................................................................... 5 Lesson 1 Population and Sustainability ..................................................................................... 5 Lessons 2 and 3: Natural Capital ................................................................................................ 8 Lesson 4: Global Climate Change and the Carbon Cycle......................................................... 11 Lesson 5: Energy....................................................................................................................... 14 Lesson 6: Potential Solutions: How the Experts Think It Can Be Done .................................. 18 Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 21 Appendix A: Lecture Outline for Lesson 1............................................................................. 21 Appendix B Lesson 1 Reading Discussion Questions. ............................................................. 24 Appendix C: Lecture Outline for Lessons 2 and 3 ................................................................... 26 Appendix D Lecture Outline for Lesson 4…
The relationship between humans and the environment has changed over time because of technological advancements and innovations. During the beginning of human time the people was mainly nomadic; they hunted for food and travel around in packs. Fast forward a couple centuries the interaction between humans and the environment changed from being primarily hunting and gathering to being primarily farm heavy. Lastly in the twentieth century the relationship between humans and the environment has changed due to industrialization which led to humans exploiting the environment and polluting it.…
firstly the confluence of different peoples and movements brought environmental issues to the table from many different corners and secondly the environmental degradation and collapse of ecosystems on a global scale were impossible to ignore, and our politicians were largely ignoring them. The fourth stage was about Rethinking Our Socio-Techno-Cultural Way of Being in the 21st Century. We are in the Environmental Age whether we like it or not. Drastic changes seem inevitable. In the coming years we most likely will have to deal with immense ecological changes on a global scale. Today we must work to engage everyone in environmental…
The dawn of the 21st century has brought about many climatic calamities. The most significant is climate change with all its relative environmental and social issues. It is confirmed that climate change will inevitably cause critical rises in sea levels due to global warming and melting polar ice caps, unpredictable and extreme climatic trends and dramatically decreased habitability of some sovereign lands for examples hurricanes, floods and volcanoes etc. There is a risk that carry-on effects will continue displace regions and further degrade the environment, post-mitigation. Residents of these nations can be temporarily or permanently displaced from their homeland. These environmentally displaced persons would be nominally known as environmental refugees. Currently, the concept of an environmental refugee is not officially acknowledged throughout the world. This is proved the fact that no international legal consensus has seriously considered the existence of ‘environmental refugees‘.…
People argue that globalisation increases demand for natural resources that are integral to the ecological systems that sustain life on the planet…Glob creates incentives for excessive use of resources and disregard for their true ecological value, resulting in problems like increased greenhouse emissions and deforestation. The process undermines traditional values and attitudes that have helped preserve the natural environment throughout history, and propagates an increasingly consumerist culture.…