ERA ONE: Pre-Conservation – Setting the Stage

Throughout the course of their existence, humans’ dependence on the basic satisfaction of certain needs, including food, water and shelter, has been constant. While much has changed throughout human history, this simple facet of existence remains true today – modern society only differs in the process of acquiring these goods. In much of the Pre-Conservation Era of environmental history, humans were directly involved in the procurement of their basic requirements. This fact, more than any other, distinguishes this era. Institutions were either poorly organized or simply non-existent; thus, individuals largely controlled their interactions with the natural world. With this direct contact, humans developed innumerable methods and strategies for obtaining and manipulating resources to meet their basic needs. In fact, modern civilization hinges on the ability of humans to continually utilize these developed processes and to manipulate tools and resources, including fire, plants, animals and minerals, in order to create livable environmental conditions under a variety of circumstances, thereby ensuring survival of larger populations. For example, the large-scale explosion in human population from 12,000 BCE to present-day society is rooted in the technological advancements of food production from early humans to contemporary scientists. Such discoveries, including the plow, crop rotation, irrigation and selective breeding of plants and animals uniquely fostered the ability to sustain greater numbers of people. Historically, humans were roundly dependent on the most common form of sustenance: nomadism. However, the onset of the Agricultural Revolution changed such basic behaviors and spawned a new era of human development and evolution.

For the first time ever, entire civilizations flourished along with their improved quality of life. Rather than being completely controlled by the whims of nature, humans began to assert increasing command over the world around them. Information on new methods and ways of living traveled widely; technological progress took foot almost worldwide. Humans, previously a predominately nomadic species, started to settle and create permanent villages or homesteads, now called cities or “built environments.” With these new benefits, there also came new challenges. Pollution – and the first attempts to control it – pervaded and caused rampant disease, contamination and discomfort in many areas. Widespread food and resource shortages also occurred, as food storage methods and adaptations to natural disasters or changing climates were still developing. Though many impediments occurred in the transition from the Agricultural Revolution to the Industrial Age of the 19th century, the overall developments of a global society continued largely unabated. Primarily, the growth and widespread dissemination of technology reciprocally created an exponential magnification of the human population. From around 5000 BCE to 1800 CE, the human species increased from an estimated 50-100 million people to over 1 billion. During the same time period, humans essentially created a society interwoven and almost wholly dependent on technological processes. Such unparalleled trends continue to this day and remain a cornerstone of humanity’s precarious relationship with the environment.