As the basic material for buildings, transportation, and fuel, wood was a necessity for the growth and development of the ancient civilizations. Wood was the key resource used in the construction of houses and ships and it was the primary fuel source for light and heat in households and public facilities. As a result of the many needs the resource satisfied, the word wood in the Greek and Latin languages was synonymous with substance or matter (Hughes P. 74). The constant use and growing demand of lumber generated negative externalities on the environment. Overtime deforestation became a growing concern for the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. With the use of wood playing such a major role in the economy, governments offered privileges, tax incentives, and leases to the timber industry to provide greater incentive to cut down the trees. The growth of agriculture also contributed to the deforestation issue. It was common practice for farmers to clear woodlots to establish their farms on areas of fertile soil. In combination with grazing cattle, the forest was unable to regenerate after being cleared away. …show more content…
As the population increased and the civilization expanded and developed, larger amounts of trees were cleared to accommodate the increased demand for space. During times of war, large amounts of trees were cut down in order to construct siege equipment and war ships. As demonstrated by the Spartan victory during the Peloponnesian war, a powerful well established navy could potentially determine which side is victorious. This is the reason why the destruction of forests became a common war tactic. It is evident that the timber supply acts as a powerful weapon that influences the outcomes of wars. For this reason, warfare was a major cause of deforestation (Hughes P.
Written by Edward Ward and published in 1706, the Wooden World Dissected explains the inside of a ship that most people do not get to see. The ship and the people in it are supposed to represent the makeup of the Royal Navy. He begins the book with a letter explaining how he wants to inform the reader with more information than they could get from looking at a picture. This leads the reader to believe that he is going to write a book full of dull facts, however he writes a satire. He describes everyone, from the Sea Captain all the way down the ladder to the common sailor. He uses comparisons, descriptions of relationships and character, and his own voice to paint a picture of a life aboard a ship in the mid fifteenth to early sixteenth century.
Due to Chagnon’s unparalleled body of work in terms of quantity and, as many argue, quality, Marvin Harris draws heavily on his research to support his point, which is that the origin of war is ecological and reproductive pressure. One should question Harris’s theories (and all theories), especially in the light of the aforementioned article, but I do not believe his arguments are, or should be, adversely affected by the information presented in this article.
Once forests began to be viewed as beneficial, it opened up a whole new lifestyle. The forests and nature might have been an evil and scary place, but it was a place filled with resources and opportunity. Settlers began using trees and wood in a plethora of ways. Not only was it used for families own use, many began logging forests as a business; a very profitable business at that. Once wood started being used for beneficial purposes, a snowball effect occurred by the settlers to cut down every tree in sight and turn it into a profit.
“The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaling to 46 years, human have been here 4 hours, the industrial revolution began 1 minute ago, and in that time, we’ve destroyed more than half the world’s forests.” - Unknown. One major environmental problem in our world is deforestation - what is that, you ask? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, deforestation is the action or process of clearing of forests. Some consequences of this include a large contribution to global warming and climate change (about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year), loss of biodiversity especially in tropical rainforests, and the extinction of many known or yet to be discovered species. But, through some Debt-for-Nature Swaps, leaving forests
Robert, K. (2010, jan 26). Effects of Deforestation . Retrieved Dec 3, 1996, from www.earlham.edu: http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/17Fall96/inneske/effects.HTM
Adding to the devastating effect of mans obsessive consumption of wood was the needless destruction of natural forests during times of war, leaving lasting scars of barren earth which would take hundreds of years to recover. World War One also had severe impacts on forested areas due to the devastation of mass bombing and fire clearing.
Deforestation is a widely used term, but one with different meanings. Disturbance deforestation refers to all man made disturbances that alter a forest, these are the most common. This argumentative essay discusses the positive and negative aspects of deforestation. In the first part of the essay the pro arguments of deforestation will be discussed. For example, the issue of Global population and how forests are being used, land use and the ways forests contribute, wood use, forest growth, destruction and the reasons for cutting down the trees. The second half of the essay will cover the issues that are harmful to the environment because of deforestation. Many environmental issues take place everyday; a big question that arises, is if the global economy will ever finds middle on the issue of forest thinning. If deforestation was used only in the most crucial of times, the world might become a better place.
Szalay, Jessie. "Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2014. .
War is controversial, unfortunate, and certainly misunderstood; it is a transforming agent, a catalyst for change. Nonetheless, many people focus on war's negative consequences, while positive effects are downplayed. War is a necessary evil in the sense that it stabilizes population, encourages technological advances, and has a very high economic value. Without war, the overpopulation of the human race is inevitable. It is this reason that war is a useful tool by not only Mother Nature, but also humans themselves to institute population control.
The forests around the world a supply a plethora of community amenities and commercial goods , nevertheless forested terrain progressively is becoming transformed to accommodate other uses, including cropland, pasture, mining, and urban areas, which can produce superior private financial returns. The wide array of benefits the forest provides that vanish directly tied to deforestation have resulted in several policies drafted with the sole intention to reduce the frequency of deforestation. This paper has two primary objectives. First, this paper will review and summarize both the preceding and current research on deforestation. Second, it will emphasize the significance of future research and development, as well as other solutions needed
Ancient civilizations were positioned where they were for a reason, to make use of the resources that were in those places. You may notice that most ancient civilizations didn’t settle in the desert or in the middle of nowhere they settled in places where they had resources natural, capital and human. Ancient civilizations mainly looked for a lot of natural resources when looking for a place to settle. If you look at maps showing where ancient civilizations settled you will see that it was mainly around a big body of water. Water is a natural resource that is vital to all life so settling near water gave these civilizations many necessary things such as hydration, transportation, and cleanliness.
Scientists themselves are just beginning to understand the serious problems caused by deforestation. Deforestation occurs all over the world by all types of people. Peasant farmers even add to the problem because in most tropical countries the farmers are very poor only making between eight hundred and fifty four hundred dollars annually (NASA Facts). Therefore, they do not have enough money to buy what they need to live therefore they must farm to raise crops for food and to sell. In these poor countries the majority of people are peasant farmers this farming adds up to a great deal of deforestation. These farmers chop down a small area of trees for there plot to farm on and burn the tree trunks (NASA Facts). The combined number of farmers maintaining this process creates a great deal of clearing and burning of the land they need to cultivate, which results in land being treeless. Commercial logging is also another common form of deforestation. This commercial logging wipes out massive amounts of land sometimes deforesting several miles at...
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
Allen, Julia C., and Douglas F. Barnes. "The Cause of Deforestation in Developing Countries." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 1985: 163-184. Print.
Timber and especially hardwoods like mahogany and ebony are being felled at an alarming rate to satisfy the needs of the swiftly developing world. Another problem for the forest areas of the world is the type of agriculture used by some peasant farmers known as "slash & burn". This method of farming involves the burning of trees to add to the initial supply of nutrients in the soil. Over time this supply slowly wares down and so the farmer once again moves onto another plot of trees to slash and burn.