How did humans directly impact their environment in prehistoric times?

Talent 21 project done by Lena Nguyen in 2012

Prologue

After the glacier age, the human population have been increasing. They didn’t think about protecting the Earth. Only survival. And that’s okay for them because if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here, but it would’ve been better if they thought just a little to conserve the Earth, right? In this presentation, I typed about how different groups of people affected their land.

After Glacier Age

Overpopulation has taken over the people by demanding lots of fresh water and food. Some of the foods may have been poisonous and have caused deaths, but the human population is increasing more than decreasing. They were taking up most of the land and food. Since then, people are now homeless, jobless, and starving.

Early Man

• To start a fire, early man would use wood• Tools were made from stone or animal bones• Their camps were made out of wood or

animal skin for things such as tents

Early Farmers

• Before, there were no sprinkler systems. That led early farmers to dig irrigation ditches

• People had to use water for feeding their animals and crops

• Most tools were made out of bronze, copper, or iron which are rocks that were once in the ground

Mesopotamia

• To write, Mesopotamians used soft clay slabs which they removed from the ground

• The Mesopotamians used a method to clear trees for farming by using something called slash-and-burn. It uses fire and it takes the lives of trees with it

• When they needed to write, they would cut inscribers from reeds

Egypt

• Building houses cost the Egyptians mud bricks that they stole from the banks of the Nile River

• The people used wood to build boats, even though they knew they only had a limited supply of it

• To build pyramids, the Egyptians would dig limestone from the ground for the blocks

Greece

• Greek appetite was mostly fish. Creatures are part of the environment and to eat them affects the environment. Also, when they’re done eating, where are they going to put the bones? The only possible solution was to throw away by littering.

• In the beginning of using iron, Greeks used fire to melt it. It takes a lot of wood to do it. That means it takes a lot of trees

• Some jewelry were fashioned from stone, metal, or clay that all came with the earth

Rome

• To keep the sewers clean, the Romans clean the drain pipes were washed with water from baths

• The Romans built their roads by using clay, chalk and gravel

• An aqueduct, a building to carry water, was built out of stone

Epilogue

Whether it’s using stone from the ground, or using wood to provide warmth, or killing innocent animals, the people affected the earth somehow. They used up an abundance amount of resources that we are on the edge to getting to scarce to. They left the job of saving the earth to us. We are trying to do as much as we can such as recycling and using water-saving sinks.