People with their environment

•Human absolutely dependent on their

environment.
•Past civilizations-lesson to learn. Are
we repeating their mistake? The
civilization collapse of Easter Island,
Mayans,Greeks,Incas and Romans.
The haunting ghost on Easter Island
• Easter Island = striking example of the
dependence of human societies on their
environment and of the consequences of
irreversibly damaging that had done to its
environment.
• One of most isolated islands in the world –
South pacific Coast of South America.
• Statues of giant heads (Moai) standing with their
back to the sea.
 The haunting ghost on Easter Island
• The challenge of transporting the statues, (20 feet
in length and weighing several tens of tons) are
evidence of once a sophisticated civilization.
• 1992, Japanese with cranes & heavy equipment,
worked for 5 years to restore 15 moai .
• Yet, the native were living in primitive level.
 The haunting ghost on Easter Island
• 1200 years ago, Polynesians colonized the islands
• The islands were abundant with forest tree.
• Population increased -> trees were cut for agriculture,
structural material & to move huge stones from the
volcanic quarries to their erection sites.
• By 1600, all trees were gone.
• Bold land failed to hold water, erosion polluted the nearby
sea ->killing fish/shell fish.
• Eroded land baked hard under the hot sun & dry quickly
after rain.
• Agriculture work became harder and rewards fewer.
• Fights between the ruling class & workers
• Starvation & disease became epidemic
• Without trees, no one could escape the island by boat.
• Population dropped from 8000 to few hundreds by mid-
1800.
 Lesson to learn
Disaster=When society fail to care for
environment->Population increase
beyond the sustainbality of soil & land
for food production.
• Earth = Island
• Population growth rocketing high
• Besides exhausting resources, pollution
problems
 The Global Environmental – population growth
• Population growth-exponential since 1830. 2 billion in 25 years (83 million/yr) = 6
billion in 1999.
• Projection -> 10 billion by 2050.
 The more the merrier?
• Increase consumption by increase
population (South Africa,India,China) and
increase consumption per person
(developed countries).
• One third of the world population, cooking
fuel = firewood.
 The Global Environmental – degradation of soil
• Erosion
• Desertification-usually in marginal areas. Mainly caused by over-grazing &
wood collection.
 Linear dunes of the
Sahara Desert encroach
on Nouakchott, the
capital of Mauritania Camels and other
animals trample the soil
Overgrazing -Rio Puerco in the semiarid Sahel of
Basin (central New Mexico) Africa as they move to
one of the most eroded water holes such as this
river basins ->the high one in Chad
sediment content of the
river
Off-road vehicles
significantly increase soil
loss in the delicate desert
environment of the
western United States. In
Goat seeks food in the
a few seconds, soils that
sparsely vegetated
took hundreds of years to
Sahel of Africa
develop can be destroyed
 Saline Soil

• ‘crop-fallow” system of farming.

• Strip of land on every other year is kept barren to allow
soil moisture to build up and eliminate weeds.
• On these strips, called “summer fallow”, there are no
plants to absorb the water from rain or melted snow,
• Rain more easily soaks through the soil, leaching salts
along the way and causing an elevated water table