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This presentation examines the evolution of human societies through different modes of adaptation, illustrating key transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture, and ultimately to industrialization. It highlights how these shifts have shaped livelihoods, social organizations, and population dynamics while exploring philosophical views like animism, environmental stewardship, and the impact of technology on our relationship with nature. By analyzing historical perspectives and modern implications, we strive for a sustainable future that addresses the needs of the present without compromising future generations.
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Mode of adaptation and transitions • Refers to a society’s livelihoods, social & economic organization, or its ‘production system’ • Physical limits of the environment and the mode of adaptation determine the population size that can be supported by a given environment. • e.g. hunting & gathering, agriculture, industrialisation • Human societies have experienced transitions from one mode to another: • hunting & gathering → agriculture • agriculture → industrialisation
Modes of adaptation and population over time 6 2000 5 Hunter - gatherer Population (billions) 4 Agrarian 3 1750 2 Industrial 1 -10,000 -1000 0 1000 Year (log scale)
What about our relationship with the environment? • Hunter-gatherers are animists – see many biotic and physical processes as having spiritual significance, i.e. see no distinction between the spiritual and material worlds • Agrarian societies developed organised religions with various positions ranging from ‘domination of nature’ to ‘stewardship’ and the retention of varying degrees of animism • Early industrialism either ignored the environment or considered it in utilitarian terms but was concerned with ‘wise use’
Views of the Human-Environment Relationship • Primitivism (hunter-gatherer) • Jean-Jacques Rousseau and ‘the noble savage’ • John Muir’s wilderness preservation ethic, national parks • Arne Naess and ‘deep ecology’ • Agrarianism (agrarian) • ‘Back to the land’ movement: Gandhi in India, Jefferson in U.S. • Scientific Industrialism (industrial) • Conservation and ‘wise use’ based on scientific knowledge Source: Guha and Martinez-Alier (1997)
Primitivism Evil The plough, technology Key words unspoiled nature, interspecies equity Policy go back to stage 1, drastically reduce population Hunter-gatherer Agrarian Industrial Environmental and Social goodness time After Guha and Martinez-Alier (1997)
Agrarianism Evil Industrialism, consumerism Key words appropriate technology, back to the land Policy go back to stage 2 Hunter-gatherer Agrarian Industrial Environmental and Social goodness time After Guha and Martinez-Alier (1997)
Scientific Industrialism Evil Illiterate peasantry (non-experts) Key words Efficiency, sustained production, science Policy Leave it to the experts Hunter-gatherer Agrarian Industrial Halting progress of science and technology Environmental and Social goodness time After Guha and Martinez-Alier (1997)
Early studies of human impact on the environment • … to indicate the character and, approximately, the extent of the changes produced by human action in the physical conditions of the globe we inhabit; to point out the dangers of imprudence and the necessity of caution in all operations which, on a large scale, interfere with the spontaneous arrangements of the organic or the inorganic world; to suggest the possibility and the importance of the restoration of disturbed harmonies and the material improvement of waste and exhausted regions; and, incidentally, to illustrate the doctrine, that man is, in both kind and degree, a power of a higher order than any of the other forms of animated life … Source: Marsh 1864; p3 From 1969 to 1987, there were 17 major studies of the global environmental impact of humans …
Biosphere change and lessons learned (Kates et al. 1990) • Human-induced environmental change is enormous and accounts for the greatest share of all historic environmental change • Most global-scale impacts of human-induced change are quite recent, especially those related to biogeochemical flows in the biosphere • There’s been a shift from agricultural transformation of the earth’s surface to industrial extraction of materials and energy to a mix of these and more advanced transformations • Rate of change in impact has been slowing for some biosphere components (e.g. population), while others are accelerating • Overall, earth’s transformation is not evenly spread; instead, it varies greatly between regions • Difficult to forge a global consensus on action because of differing perspectives from region to region • Forces of change include population growth, technological capacity and socio-cultural organization but are not well understood; no universal theory
Human forces of environmental change Formal regulation Market adjustment Social regulation Driving forces Population Technology Social values & norms Mitigating forces Environmental change Socio-political & economic structure Human agency Human behaviour Kates et al. (1990)
Sustainable Development … the way forward? • Sustainable development is development that: "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". • [Source: Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p8] • or “maintaining the capacity of the joint economy-environment system to continue to satisfy the needs and desires of humans for a long time into the future” • [Source: Ecological Economics, Common and Stagl, 2005, p8) • Is this a new paradigm ??
