Urbanization

Human Societies

• Three types:• Hunter-gatherer – nomads that hunt and

gather naturally growing food

• Agricultural – grows crops and stays in one place

• Industrial – produces food and other products using machines – requires large amounts of energy and resources

Hunter - Gatherer

• Nomads – “travelers” move around to where food can be found

• Gather naturally growing plants and hunt for whatever animals they can find

• Small populations

• Very small impact on the environment

• Still exist in remote areas

Agricultural

• 10-20,000 years ago people in Southeast Asia and Africa began to farm

• Planted crops and raised animals for food• Caused 2 main changes:• 1. People started to settle in one place• 2. Find work within their society

Agricultural cont...

• Most important invention was the plow• Helped produce more food and plant more

• What do you think more food meant?• Population grew!

• Modern agriculture caused some problems:• Use of more land and chemical use• Soil depletion (erosion)• Water contamination• Food contamination

Industrial Society

• Another population surge in the 1700s: AKA Industrial Revolution.

• Production of food was done by machine, not man

• Machines need more energy

• Major environmental damage from the machines

Industrial

• Positives:• Improved crops • Medical discoveries – people lived longer and

reproduced more

• Negatives:• More energy use (fossil fuels)• Natural resource depletion• Increases population• Air, land and water pollution

Urbanization

• Urbanization – people moved to cities for work• More factories meant more jobs

• City populations were doubling in size every 15 years• Water systems couldn’t handle it• Land was being used to build on, so it became

less arable (useable for farming)

Old Way of Thinking…

• Frontier Ethic- USE AND ABUSE MATERIALS• Resources are unlimited. We will NEVER run

out of anything.• Humans do NOT need to obey laws.• We were not held responsible for our actions. • People only lived for the moment… they did

not think for future generations.

New and BETTER Way of thinking

• SUSTAINABILITY• Resources are NOT unlimited and CAN NOT be

used faster than they can be renewed, BUT the sad reality is that humans are depleting resources much too fast.

• OBEY LAWS! • Successful societies concentrate on using

conservation and RENEWABLE resources.

• Current fertility rates put us at the medium growth rate; 9 billion by 2050

Before you go: Reflect on/interpret this picture. What does this mean to you?