GEOG 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Management, Antiquities Act, Kyoto Protocol
7 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Chapter 2 environmental history: learning from the past. Hunter - gatherers- homo sapiens survived by collecting edible plant wild plant parts, hunting, fishing and scavenging meats from animals killed by other predators. Agriculture revolution-a cultural shift some 10 000 12 000 years ago began in several regions in the world. It involved a gradual move from usually nomadic hunting and gathering groups to settled agricultural communities in which people domesticated wild animals and cultivated wild plants. Slash and burn cultivation- to prepare the land for planting, people cleared small patches of tropical forests by cutting down trees and other vegetation and then burning the underbrush. The ashes fertilized the often nutrient- poor tropical forest soils in this cultivation. Shifting cultivation- after a plot had been used for several years, the soil became depleted of nutrients or reinvaded by the forest. After 10-30 years the soil will become fertilized enough to grow crops again.
