Antropology, culture and enviromental studies: presentation

Resumen

Environmental literature deals with the interactions between human populations and the physical environments that surround them. The relationship is one of mutual feedback. The physical environment has been a crucial factor in human evolution throughout the entire history of our species and, indeed, throughout the history of all life on our planet. Conversly, life itself has had a major impact on the earth, take for example the cyanobacteria that two billion years ago oxygenated the atmosphere and powerfully changed our planet. Human influence, initially small, has since the industrial revolution become a major geological force. Our mining activities alone have moved more sediment than all the world’s rivers combined (Monastersky). Homo sapiens has warmed the planet, raised sea levels, eroded the ozone layer and acidified the oceans. Terms such as Deep Horizon, Fukushima, Chernoble, mass extinctions of animal and plant species, shrinking water resources, and geoengineering have all taken on sinister overtones due to human activity. We’ve even a new term for it: the Anthropocene.