Antarctica, now the Mars lab. I'm seeing a pattern here! Are you trying to qualify for the next moon landing? What a great post!
On Dartmoor this summer, I was surprised to learn that it used to be forest. Hut circles are all that's left of the bronze age population that burned the forest to graze sheep. The land eventually became so depleted that they moved on.
Here on my island, the original claimant Captain Vancover saw "green lawns" on the west side, areas where the tribes had cleared forest to grow camas. Settlers took that land for agriculture which persists to this day.
We've just scaled it up, razing whole rainforests to grow soy for animals.
It's part of why I have a beef with animal agriculture and stay vegan.
Melanie this is a well produced piece, that helps to put our sorry planet's history into clear perspective.
More intelligent than doom scrolling initiated moaning, and an arrow to thinking clearly about solutions. I believe that we, the writers have a duty to prompt such thinking, and I perceive a growing trend here. A trend that some of us are attempting to accelerate. Perhaps this will interest you....
When I read this I was reminded of the wonderful book by Jared Diamond titled "Guns, Germs and Steel". It was a wonderful and broad theory on the development of civilization. What was critical, why did it happen and where did it lead. I often return to the observation that amid perhaps 200,000 years of upright walking ape, we mostly splashed around in the mud until recently. I fear our rate of change nowadays finally exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet for a lot of critical parameters that keep life in balance. This article was great at describing a lot of the critical changes we discovered. We started slow and now we seem so far beyond a lot of capacity limits.
Fascinating post, Melanie! You've pulled together a lot of information here. Have you read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond? It's a fascinating look at human history. Even though I've read it twice the details keep fading from my memory, but he discusses much of what you mention here. I'm fascinated by your pointing out that agriculture arose almost simultaneously in so many separate areas.
Antarctica, now the Mars lab. I'm seeing a pattern here! Are you trying to qualify for the next moon landing? What a great post!
On Dartmoor this summer, I was surprised to learn that it used to be forest. Hut circles are all that's left of the bronze age population that burned the forest to graze sheep. The land eventually became so depleted that they moved on.
Here on my island, the original claimant Captain Vancover saw "green lawns" on the west side, areas where the tribes had cleared forest to grow camas. Settlers took that land for agriculture which persists to this day.
We've just scaled it up, razing whole rainforests to grow soy for animals.
It's part of why I have a beef with animal agriculture and stay vegan.
Excellent post, Melanie—lots of important and fascinating information!
Wonderful info. I want to know more about your “Mars mission”— or rather, the NASA scientists who you bunked with.
That’s an eye opening post Melanie. I always used to think that nature is so big and human actions are so small.
Melanie this is a well produced piece, that helps to put our sorry planet's history into clear perspective.
More intelligent than doom scrolling initiated moaning, and an arrow to thinking clearly about solutions. I believe that we, the writers have a duty to prompt such thinking, and I perceive a growing trend here. A trend that some of us are attempting to accelerate. Perhaps this will interest you....
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/an-essay-contest-its-january-1-2050 Peace, Maurice
This is an excellent article. Thank you so much!
When I read this I was reminded of the wonderful book by Jared Diamond titled "Guns, Germs and Steel". It was a wonderful and broad theory on the development of civilization. What was critical, why did it happen and where did it lead. I often return to the observation that amid perhaps 200,000 years of upright walking ape, we mostly splashed around in the mud until recently. I fear our rate of change nowadays finally exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet for a lot of critical parameters that keep life in balance. This article was great at describing a lot of the critical changes we discovered. We started slow and now we seem so far beyond a lot of capacity limits.
Fascinating post, Melanie! You've pulled together a lot of information here. Have you read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond? It's a fascinating look at human history. Even though I've read it twice the details keep fading from my memory, but he discusses much of what you mention here. I'm fascinated by your pointing out that agriculture arose almost simultaneously in so many separate areas.
Thank you for another wonderful issue!