Myers stated, “Deforestation in Brazil's Atlantic-coastal forest and Madagascar has been going on for several centuries, but the main damage has occurred during this century, especially since 1950, i.e., since the spread of broad-scale industrialization and plantation agriculture in Brazil and since the onset of rapid population growth in Madagascar.” (30) In agreement with Myers, Deforestation has been an ongoing environmental issue for many years. Because of ignorance, disregard, lack of values or deficient environmental laws the issue is continuing today. There are many causes of deforestation in the United States, as well as with other countries around the world. Not the least of which, is that land owners are selling their large forested acres to developers to make room for new housing
Prior to the outbreak, the town contained 10,600 people. The death toll of the epidemic is indicative of the importance of discovering a viable means of prevention of the smallpox outbreak in colonial American towns. (3) Smallpox is a very old and contagious disease due to a virus. Evidence shows its presence going back centuries throughout the world causing illness and death wherever it occurred. It mainly affected children and young adults.
The Rapa Nui people probably arrived from Polynesia around 400 AD. There are about 800 moai (statues) on Easter Island. The written language of the Rapa Nui has yet to be deciphered. Although the arrival of white explorers and missionaries had a detrimental impact on the island, Easter Island was deforested and nearly destroyed before their arrival due to overpopulation of the tiny island. In 1995, the film Rapa Nui was released.
The Dust Bowl was mainly caused by over plowing and a perfect example of “people pushing too hard against nature, and nature pushing back”(Ib’d Dust Bowl,A Film by Ken Burns DVD).Also they needed to produce more wheat to feed American troops during the war and over 200 million acres were plowed up, which caused the land to fall apart(Ib’d Dust Bowl).Also the stock market crash in 1929 caused The Great Depression which caused wheat prices to go way down from $3.00 dollars a bushel of wheat to 10 cents a bushel,(Ib’d Surviving the Dust Bowl,2007). Then in 1930 after the stock market crash, the rain stopped. Farmers kept on plowing though, because they believed rain would follow the plow(Ib’d Dust Bowl). Wheat crops were blowing over bare soil and the harsh winds carried away the soil. Conditions became so harsh that 8 tons of top soil per acre blew away every year for a decade long drought (Ib’d Surviving).
The collection mainly comprises ceramics and carved stone sculptures, especially the ceramic cups known as keros; these were ritually smashed and buried after ceremonial use. After our stop at the museum we'll begin our tour of the Ruins of Tiwanaku. Although it may have been inhabited as early as 1500BC as a farming village, Tiwanaku became an urban center starting aorund 300AD and grew in power over the next centuries, becoming a city-state, prestigious pilgrimage site, and the administrative center of the Kingdom of Tiwanaku, whose dominion expanded throughout Bolivia and into Chile and Peru. Around 1000AD the city fell due to drought, and any remaining scattered populations were conquered and assimilated for a brief period into the Inca Empire somewhere in the late 15th century or early 16th century. Despite years of abuse at the hands of tomb raiders and misguided excavations, the site still stuns with its giant stone monoliths (the largest block in the site weighs approximately 131 tons!)
The fault system that split to result in this earthquake was the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system. What were its effects on the environment? The greatest issue that the quake had on Haiti is the building waste. Before the earthquake even occurred, Haiti already had environmental complications. Combining these ecological issues with Haiti’s ever-growing population (now 9.7 million are increasing by 2.5 per cent each year) this becomes the result of millions of Haitians being forced to live in low areas like floodplains.
As a result of this, plants and animals are forced to adapt to significant changes that threaten their way of life. As explained by Suzuki in the article, every year at least twenty thousand species disappear forever and the rate of extinction is speeding up largely due to human activity. Many living things are now paying the price for all the man made pollution that has been created as a result of global warming. Furthermore we as a community do nothing to stop global warming and feel no sense of responsibility or duty to care for the overall well being of our world. Big businesses are releasing harmful chemicals into the atmosphere and oceans.
There was a culture exchange, between the two landmasses. Europeans had brought over disease that the natives had no immunity. The diseases included influenza, measles, small pox, and typhus. These diseases killed millions “in the Maya area of Mexico, as much as 95 percent of the population perished.” (American Civ to 1914, 13-14). Another big cultural exchange was with crops.
There are many different reasons why extinction happens, some of these cause are natural but the majority of them are due to human activity such as deforestation and an increased amount of fossil fuels being used which then leads to global warming. Extinction has increased 100,000 times more than before humans were on earth. There currently is a mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, some of the main causes of this are habitat destruction, invasive animals, population growth, pollution and over exploitation. Biodiversity is the variety of plants and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat which are affected negatively due to some activities that humans are causing such as climate change. My first piece of evidence in favour of human activity leading to extinction is ‘humans are driving animals to extinction faster than they can evolve ‘written by Juliette Jowit, (on Sunday the 7th of March 2010), the guardian newspaper, 15/01/15.
Last year a shockwave escalated through the nation. Swine flu had struck, or had it? The H1N1 disease originated from Mexico and initially it was predicted that 65,000 people would die, however, this number was further reduced to 1900. The flu could be spread by a simple sneeze or cough or even touching the surface where someone with swine flu had been. The government were extremely concerned that this was going to be a repeat of the 1918 and 1957 pandemics; where nearly 50-100 million people died worldwide, but, the pandemics became milder as time went on.