How Can We Collectively and Individually Promote Sustainable Communities

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HOW CAN WE COLLECTIVELY AND INDIVIDUALLY PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES? Figure [ 1 ] What is sustainability? Wikipedia defines sustainability as the capacity to endure. If we narrow that down to what sustainability means to the human race, we see that it has environmental, economic and social dimensions. These dimensions encompass a relationship with all living and non-living things on this earth. In short, I believe it is safe to say that sustainability has a very wide definition and it encompasses many areas of our world and our lives. In this paper, I will be touching on the topics that relate to sustainable communities. Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old and it is believed that humans originated about 200,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic period in southern Africa. Approximately 70,000 years ago, humans migrated out of Africa and began colonizing our planet. Archeologist James Henry Breasted first described a region of land which begins in present day southern Iraq and extends north along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It turns west toward ancient Assyria and then south towards present day Syria. This area then turns down into southern Palestine. J. H. Breasted called this area the Fertile Crescent because of its crescent-shape and the fertility of the land. Figure [ 2 ] The region was defined as the cradle of civilization as this is where we see proof of some of the earliest human civilizations. These civilizations began and flourished using the plentiful water supply and agricultural resources that were available in this region. In the Fertile Crescent area they have found many sites with skeletal and cultural remains. However, the area is most famous for its sites related to the origins of agriculture. Remains show that this was probably where the first known farming settlements arose. Evidence of the first
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