I.
Man's relationship with nature and the god(s)
Man & nature are harmonious. Nature
subjugates man. Man holds domination.
Creation out of chaos
Notion of time
Nature as ordered
Ecological regularity
Greek
Gods as creator and designer of nature. Nature as ordered for use by god(s)
and by man. Man as manipulator of environment.
Greek
& Roman
·
Greek & Romans varied concepts of
environment
·
Traditional world as sacred
gods of nature (some human qualities)
·
View later questioned philosophers
discover truth of nature through reason
·
Nature revered, impacts provoke
reaction of god/goddess
·
However, obeying religious ordinances
conflicted with self-interest environmental degradation
·
Pantheism
Medieval
Monotheism
In creation stories under monotheism
the role of god as the agent of creation varies. Under deism:
God transcends the world, but does not actively participate in it. God created
the world, but allows it to run on its own following the rules used to govern
all activities. Under theism: God
exists both outside the world and within the world. God both created the world
and participates in it. Gods appearance is referred to as theophany.
Modern
Greek
& Roman Reason & Causation
·
Nature as ordered
·
Preserve natural order some
protections
·
Greek rationalism nature ordered
& followed logical principles (laws)
·
Principles known through reason -
discover truth about nature through reason weakened religious beliefs
including limited environmental protections
·
Aristotle
·
hierarchical system: plants > animals >
man > use of
nature for human good
·
view of environment as effects on
humans
·
environmental degradation inherent
·
influence carries to modern
·
Causality:
o
Material cause material out of
which things are made
o
Formal cause essential
characteristics
o
Efficient cause what brings into
being - limited to man
o
Final cause purpose for what
something is made end
Medieval
Causation
·
Explanations in terms of final cause
emphasize formal cause
·
Environment rational manifestation
of god
·
World created by god
·
Causation - due to forms inherent in
substances, and there is a division of the substances involved into agents and
patients
Modern
Causation
Features of modernity - rejection of
the Aristotelian four causes - replaced by view that only sort of causation is mechanical
i.e., particles of matter colliding into one another in accordance with the
laws of motion - efficient causation, different from Aristotles.
·
Bacon
o
interest in technology
o
purpose of science and metaphysics was
not merely to understand, but power to transform nature
o
For innovation, we need knowledge of
forms, which is the province of metaphysic
o
in nature nothing genuinely exists
apart from individual bodies
·
Causal Processes
·
Probabilistic Causal Processes
·
Slash and burn agriculture
·
Fuel, charcoal production and
manufacturing processes, building ships, houses and castles, and mining. From
offertory worship of the gods
·
Charcoal heat, mining (stone,
metals), use of metal, pottery - kilns
·
Woodlands and fields for hunting
·
Urbanization
·
Forest stallions for reseeding. Laws
governing who has access to woods and fields. Laws governing hunting and hawking
- Political Economy of timber some management
·
Climate change, desertification
·
Deforestation disrupts water runoff
soil erosion
·
Deforestation disrupts water runoff
erosion
·
Alters shore, waterways fish, bird
habitat marsh >
insects > disease
Overgrazing
cattle, sheep, goats, swine >
various preferences, repeated throughout history and in many cultures
Green
spaces
·
Gardens, parks, and protected areas
·
Greeks & Romans gardens &
natural tracts
o
sanctuaries for gods/goddesses
o
divided, holy & ordinary
o
worship outdoors
o
some sanctuaries large, old-growth
o
hunting & pleasure for rulers
o
regulation & management
·
Forest deforestation
o
Agriculture
o
Hunting
o
Urbanization
·
Urban
o
Fire fighting - Fire brigades
established (26BC)
o
Prevention/fighting in homes
·
Food production among Greeks, Romans,
Medieval, and Modern times
·
Egyptians decimated wildlife from
hunting, birds from netting
·
Egyptians basically eliminated trees
for construction, fuel, and sacrifices to the gods
·
Many issues similar throughout periods
Greek, Roman, Medieval, Modern
·
Habitat destruction
·
Wildlife suffered reduction in numbers
·
Some extinction, habitat destruction
& hunting
·
Recognized possibility of extinction
·
Hunting >
gods (pastime, protected, controlled, festivals)
·
Wildlife refuges
·
Subsistence
·
Markets (led to depletion)
·
Defense of agriculture
·
Habitat destruction
o
Land cleared for agriculture/food
production
o
Overgrazing
o
Irrigation
·
Animals used on battlefield
Entertainment
·
Romans used wildlife in arenas
o
Elephants, rhinos & zebras
extinct in N. Africa
o
Crocs, hippos under pressure along Nile
·
Irrigation, flooding, soil salinization,
soil laterization (Egypt and other riverine cultures)
·
Erosion, terracing, planting trees.
(Greeks and Romans)
·
Plowing strategies, tilling, dung
fertilizers, crop rotation (Medieval agriculture)
·
Intensive versus extensive agricultural
practices, modern fertilizers, pesticides, genetic cropping.
Since
the agricultural revolution social commentators have noted that production falls
as soil fecundity wanes. Declining productivity meant inability of farmers to
feed families acute starvation or chronic malnutrition, inability to generate
surplus income to have more children or if single, to enter wedlock and start
families. (Crop shortages, failures, and increased peasant taxation often
precipitated peasant revolts against the landed aristocracy.) Farmers abandoned
fields and migrate searching new lands. This pattern of farm and move accounts
for the expansion of settlement pattern from old to new territories peasant
communities not stationary. Length of land tenure varied depending on type of
soil, types of crops grown, and availability of water and weather.
·
Crops barley, wheat
·
Vineyards & orchards
·
Domesticated animals
·
Basic agricultural tools & machines
·
Value of manure recognized, debating
the relative merits of sheep, goat, cattle, horse, pigeon and human dung
·
Plowing back of weeds - replenish soil
·
Green manure - composting lupine, bean,
vetch plowed under
·
Liming the soil was accomplished using
limestone, chalk, burnt marble, and marl
·
Two - crop rotation (legumes vs. other)
·
Seed selection to increase yield of
crop grown versus amount of seed sow
·
Greek agriculture was more ecologically
sustainable due to small acreage farms. Roman farms organized as (ranches)
latifunda stressed monoculture and overgrazing were more stressful on soil and
vegetation.
·
Erosion control - ditching and
terracing were used in hilly terrains - labor intensive
·
Irrigation systems in riverine culture
to control flood waters. Dams, cisterns, and reservoirs to capture rainfall or
spring run-off.
·
Technologies to lift water in elevation
shaduf (pivoted, counterbalanced pole with bucket), spiral Archimedean screw,
two-cylinder Ctesibian force pump, and noria.
·
Aside nature of criticisms of
theory--idiographic vs. nomothetic, statistical heuristic and statistical
heuristics based on case studies.
·
Agricultural decline
o
Soil exhaustion, despite knowledge of
importance
o
Erosion control destroyed by war
o
Salinization by irrigation
o
Poor agricultural policy taxation,
military, high expectations
·
Iron horseshoes - increased the work
capacity of horses, more efficient in military
·
High wheeled plow and moldboard plow
allowed cutting deeper furrows, plowing faster - horses using the wheel could
plow more land faster
·
Farmers cooperated in plowing
operations, changing the plot from small squares to larger plots that were
contoured
·
Seed selection practices improved. For
1 bushel of seed, yields ran about 4 bushels, marked improvement over earlier
production levels.
·
Crop rotation (3) - 1 plot winter, 1
plot spring, 1 plot fallow. Fallow plots were manured and green-manured and
plowed twice
·
Nutrition and diets were improved
during the period. Farmers income was up. Greater social stability among
peasantry.
·
Major products vine, beer, and wool
production. Aside on water power.
·
Surplus division of labor
·
Monoculture stress on soil
·
Agribusiness
·
Synthetic
herbicides/pesticides/fertilizers
Among the ancients pollution meant
contaminating the water, smoke and noxious odors in the air, waste from humans,
animals, and fowl, and production by- and end-products. Ancients commented on
linkages between increased efficiency of technology and increased demands placed
on environment thru extraction of resources, manufacturing processes, and
end-production pollution. Extractive
industries included mining, quarrying, digging for pottery, glass, bricks,
concrete, mortar, fertilizer, limestone, marble.
·
Technology
Human
technology has always caused environmental degradation though worse in
modern era as technology has become more sophisticated.
o
Extractive
Industries
§
Mining, quarrying processed
metallurgy, ceramics
o
Greeks
& Romans
§
Greeks used open pit, tunnels, open
chamber.
§
Minerals mined: gold, auriferous quartz
and auriferous galena (silver), copper (chalcopyrite), iron from pyrite and
hematite, zinc from calamine, mercury from cinnabar
§
Salt mines used quarrying techniques
§
Romans added hydraulic mining; used
sluice technology. Water used to separate ore from over burden (sluices and
settling tanks)
§
State controlled mining leased to
private entrepreneurs - slave labor
§
Stone was cut by picks and hammers.
Bronze saws were used in quarrying. Rocks were broken by heating stones and
pouring vinegar on them to crack them. (Egyptians in colder climes drill holes
in limestone, poured water holes, froze - expanding ice cracked rocks.)
§
Technology to light tunnels - fatwood,
oil and wick lamps
§
Drainages of mines accomplished using
Archimedean screw, piston pumps, waterwheels. Underground streams were diverted.
§
Massive amounts of wood used for energy
and timber to shore up mine tunnels led to deforestation.
§
All digging operations led to scarring
of land.
§
Metallurgy - separation of metals from
ores, smiths work metal in jewelry, tools, utensils, armor, and weapons.
o
Medieval
§
Quarrying for stone for construction of buildings, bridges, and highways
§
Mining under many cities
§
Tunnels often converted to water
courses or sewers
§
Change of landscape
§
Mining for iron
ore was of paramount importance - weapons, armor, horseshoes, agricultural
tools, nails
§
Iron replaced wooden parts in many
water driven machines
§
Silver, gold, lead, tin were sought
after metals
§
Metallurgy and smithing major
occupations
§
Control - kings and emperors, major
source of income. In England laws were passed which allowed access to timber and
setting up mining operations on anyone's property. (Appalachian coal
operations?)
Pollution
·
Deforestation
largest problem during past eras many, many uses for wood
·
Air
o
Domestic heating and manufacturing
(wood, charcoal, dung, sea coal)
o
Greek & Roman
§
Dust from mining led to air pollution.
Miners breathed toxic dust that discolored skin, lung diseases, or poisoned
them.
§
Byproduct of production kilns, metal
smiths
§
Fumes of noxious substances headed,
burned
o
Medieval
§
Industrialization deforestation
§
Wood for building, machines, heat
smoke
§
Coal smelters, kilns smoke
§
London 1st city to
suffer man-made atmospheric pollution. Substitution
of sea coal led to reports of air pollution in London and bans against its
burning in late 1200s.
o
Modern
§
CO2
§
Industry & private
§
Some regulations
·
Water
o
Sedimentation. Filtration. Aeration.
Chlorination.
o
Greek & Roman
§
By product of mining - poisonous
metallic salts run-off ruining water for drinking or irrigation
§
Erosion from diversion
o
Medieval
§
Industrial pollution slaughter
& tanning
§
Slaughter (butchers) animal
byproduct
§
Tanning many chemicals used, washed
down-river
§
Restrictions kept out of cities,
towns
o
Modern
§
Monitored for public health purposes
§
Industry
§
Point (factory w/stack) & non-point
source (agricultural)
·
Sanitation
o
Sanitation and waste removal (Human
waste, Animal waste, Toilets and Sewers, Bathing and the notions of cleanliness)
o
Every culture establishes procedures to
remove human waste, kitchen waste, water, and animal by products
o
Outdoor drainage ditches, latrines, and
cesspools universal. Indoors squat holes, toilets, and drainage systems using
copper, bronze, clay, terracotta, and lead pipes were reported variously in
Egypt, Minoa, Greece, Rome, Middle Ages.
o
Copper >
Iron and cast iron pipes >
plastic pipes
o
Greek & Roman
§
Greece (Missiles of mirth-Aeshylus),
Rome (law called Dejecti Effusive Act fined person who poured chamber pot out
window during daytime)
§
Aristotle move waste from camps
o
Medieval
§
Waste emptied onto streets or in
ditches that flowed into cesspools, or eventually drained in to waterways
§
Waste was tossed over castle walls or
privies or garderobes carried waste thru the stonework to stream below
§
Privies with pipes pipe drains, and
with cesspools. Ditches, moats, and public latrines used available flowing water
to sluice away filth
§
London Bridge has several privies --
"necessary houses or wardrobes." A number of public latrines were
built by taxpayer money.
§
Waste dumped into streams and rivers -
flow was sometimes stopped - unsanitary
§
Cesspools were numerous and sources of
noxious odors and contamination for wells as well as sites of accidents where
some would fall in and drown
§
Plague
o
Modern
§
Health commissions
§
Remove stench & disease
§
In many cultures the smell of human
excrement and urine remains one of the most common odors
·
Bathing
o
Greek & Roman
§
Bathing was practiced for religious
ritual, relaxation, cleanliness, bodily and mental fitness, or sociability
§
In Greece, free citizens were bathed at
birth, before marriage, and after death
§
Removal or sweat, dirt, and hair with
curved knives, a cold bath, and scented oil following exercise was routine in
gymnos
§
Gymnos was site for training and
educational enrichment for the Greeks
§
Rome had a most hydraulic culture -
moved water great distances using gravity drop for water flow, aqueducts some
200 miles by 52 AD, underground tunnels, pipes, sewers (e.g., Cloaca Maxima),
dams, drains, and pumps.
§
Roman
Baths
·
By 4th century AD Rome had 11 public
baths and 1352 public fountains
·
Public baths, thermae - important
feature of Roman culture
·
Note public bath water was not
circulated, filtered or regularly replaced. It was filthy. This standard of
water quality persisted for centuries.
·
Public baths were open for citizens,
supported by fees-- the rich, not the poor, male dominated - women were expected
to pay 2x as much as men. Social etiquette demanded that one not stare at nude
bathers of the opposite sex yet baths were places to conduct not only political
affairs, but engage in sexual affairs - often stimulating public outrage and
moral crackdowns. In fact, women who attended bathes had no claim to
respectability.
·
Private baths were common with some 856
private baths by the 4th century AD
o
Medieval
§
No bathing only religious purposes
§
Christianity no bathing
§
Decline of Roman influence, rise of
Christianity - value of cleanliness declined. Don't bathe, it washes away holy
water. Public bath houses became centers for hot houses, stews, bordellos and
eventually were closed.
o
Modern
§
Bathing again cleanliness
associated with moral purity
§
Late 1700s tools & goods for
cleaning
§
Rise in level of cleanliness, though
difficult
§
Development of housework routine
§
Spring cleaning
§
Laundry
§
Today thousands of cleaning
products, many chemicals, etc
·
History
of sewers
Open ditches > tubular pipes >
water to flush >
regulation (pipes-size/shape) >
diluted w/water >
treatment >
modern sewers
·
Sanitation
Movement
o
19th-century Sanitary
Movement
o
Denied the germ theory of
disease
o
Created public health
infrastructure
o
Greatest gain for life
expectancy
·
Progression of human population
centers
·
Many environmental problems arise as
large population centers form ecological impacts multiply, carrying capacity
diminishes most problems discussed are direct outcome of urbanization
·
Western civilization - tension between
urban & rural - more people, more problems (moral, social, environmental
& esthetic problems)
·
Problems social cause
·
Complex and formalized social
organizations to meet demands for providing goods and services >
centralized
·
Threatens status quo
·
More problems than rural life food
& goods (transport), sanitation, waste, pollution (water & air), noise,
crime, disease, pests
·
Fire became a problem quick to
spread
·
Need for green space (gods/goddesses,
hunting, gardens, Central Park)
·
Urban issues resonate throughout eras
·
Greek & Roman
o
Romanticization of nature - rural
nostalgia expressed by Greeks urban dwellers who formerly lived in rural areas
and missed the beauty, quiet, and clean air
o
Issues of defense
·
Medieval
o
Waste large problem
o
Fortification
·
Modern
o
Wealthy Romans and later magnates of
capitalism (Vanderbilts, Rockerfellers, Whites) turned to the country or suburbs
as an escape from urban problems. Summered by the sea. Traveled for relief from
the din of urban life.
·
Humans have been interested in
environmental quality for nearly as long as written records obtain rules
needed to protect life
·
Greek & Roman
o
Codes:
§
Limit days of agriculture trade on
roadways, to be cleaned
§
Hours of business limited
§
Traffic limited to specific hours to
limit congestion
§
To ensure cleanup of channels,
cesspools, latrines - waste dumped mid-stream and to catch ebb tide
§
Fire brigades
§
Construction codes
·
Medieval
o
European population tripled between
1000 and 1300 problems of handling expanding population (agriculture,
sanitaion)
o
Town were harshly competitive, highly
stratified, with rich elites & laborers
o
Economy was agriculture with trade
o
Assumptions about the environment:
§
1 - the earth planned -- God
intentionally provided a home for man because he favored the rational over the
irrational. Humans only rational animal. Continued
development - will of God's will
§
2 humans as stewards - managing and
protecting the resources.
o
Regulation:
§
Roadways supervised by government
§
Litter legislation
§
Hay and other fodder regulates as fire
hazards
§
Animal waste on roads - size of herds
regulated
§
Human waste not to be thrown on streets
§
Keeping roads clear for pedestrians,
vehicles, business
§
Water use was supervised by government
- water and sewer systems operated to have safe drinking water but more so for
public sanitation
§
Waste removal
o
Codes derived from Justinian codes of
ancient Rome
o
Towns and cities of north and north
central Italy between 1000 and 1750:
§
Emphasis on local rather than regional
response to environmental issues
§
Rational responses to perceived needs
within the limits of scientific and technical knowledge of the times