2.1Concept: from adaptation to domination#
In brief
The relationship between people and the environment has changed from adaptation to domination.
The relationship between people and the environment has changed from adaptation to domination. Early hunter-gatherers lived within natural limits, agriculture (about 10,000 years ago) began the large-scale transformation of land, and the Industrial Revolution multiplied energy use through coal, oil and gas. Since the middle of the twentieth century the pace of change has become so rapid that scientists describe a 'Great Acceleration' in population, energy use, fertilizer use, urbanization and emissions. Anthropogenic activities are all activities originating from human beings, as opposed to natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, and the word Anthropocene, popularized by Paul Crutzen, names the proposed geological epoch in which human activity is the dominant influence on Earth systems.
A useful way to organize this topic is to ask four questions about each activity: what resource does it use, what waste does it create, what habitat or process does it disturb, and who bears the consequences. The IPAT identity (Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology) summarizes the logic: environmental impact grows with the number of people, the amount each consumes, and the environmental efficiency of the technology used. Garrett Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons' (1968) explains why open-access resources such as fisheries, groundwater and the atmosphere are overused when each user gains privately but the cost is shared by all. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) warned about pesticides such as DDT and began the modern environmental movement, and Jared Diamond's 'evil quartet' (habitat destruction, overexploitation, introduced species and chains of extinction) lists the main drivers of species loss.