I've seen some of those stats, and it is always a great reminder of how small humans are in the big scheme, yet how dramatically we are altering the world. That one about humans farming for only 3.5% of the time we've been around is wild!
In the sense that we have agriculture globally today, the timeline is even shorter. In the British Isles, farming has only been around for about 6,000 years, northern Europe 7,000. In North America, intensive western agriculture is post-Columbian. Prior to that there was very limited crafting of crops in part due to the unsuitability for local plants to be cultivated in the way we understand it. Squash around 3,000 years, corn more like 1,500 and beans ~800. Consider that the only native wild animals in N. America to be domesticated are the wild turkey and bison. And maybe elk very recently. The other domesticated animals we have today came from Europe, Eurasia and Asia.
I highly recommend "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It's a staggering work of anthropology that will both inspire and shock you on the origins and migration of people and agriculture.
Thanks, John. I find the human-animal dynamic fascinating. Carolyn Steel’s book Hungry City is a good one as well. Seemingly minor acts of animals having huge repercussions- e.g., beavers build a damn that floods an area, which then leads to Paris being settled in a certain spot.
Reminds me of McPhee’s line in Annals of the Former World, something like if all of time was the length of your fingernail, one swipe of the file would erase our history. Good stuff man.
Great visuals here! Now I'm thinking, if Earth's existence was like a Hyrox competition, humans would be showing up right at the finish line (and still accepting the trophy!).
I've read stats like this before and this morning reading I cannot help but think the newer challenge - how few can easily, or with a desire or want, to walk the rows of any agricultural field.
Yes, we in a short time have damaged our land probably not repairable in our lifetime.
Yes, we have stepped beyond a general self sustainability which includes knowing how to grow some of our own food to having the endurance to walk, bend, harvest what grows in the field. Our reliance is on an economic and broken system. Further relied upon by sedentary life practices.
There’s an irony to your point, embodied in the prevalence of riding lawn mowers. We don’t/can’t grow food so we grow grass; grass that’s not walked on, but exists only to be mowed.
I've seen some of those stats, and it is always a great reminder of how small humans are in the big scheme, yet how dramatically we are altering the world. That one about humans farming for only 3.5% of the time we've been around is wild!
I never cease to be amazed by these statistics.
Humbling how much humans have accomplished in so short a time--and at what cost to the natural world. If we're so smart, why don't we do better?
I’ve been wrestling with that same question everyday this week, Deborah.
Any post with Thomas Cole has my whole hearted endorsement.
Nice post!
One note/correction though: the earliest forests were only 400 million years ago, not 4 billion - a massive difference
Luke- Yes! You're right- my mistake, and thank you for catching it (and reading). So many numbers...
I'm off to correct it. 😊
In the sense that we have agriculture globally today, the timeline is even shorter. In the British Isles, farming has only been around for about 6,000 years, northern Europe 7,000. In North America, intensive western agriculture is post-Columbian. Prior to that there was very limited crafting of crops in part due to the unsuitability for local plants to be cultivated in the way we understand it. Squash around 3,000 years, corn more like 1,500 and beans ~800. Consider that the only native wild animals in N. America to be domesticated are the wild turkey and bison. And maybe elk very recently. The other domesticated animals we have today came from Europe, Eurasia and Asia.
I highly recommend "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It's a staggering work of anthropology that will both inspire and shock you on the origins and migration of people and agriculture.
Thanks, John. I find the human-animal dynamic fascinating. Carolyn Steel’s book Hungry City is a good one as well. Seemingly minor acts of animals having huge repercussions- e.g., beavers build a damn that floods an area, which then leads to Paris being settled in a certain spot.
I'll check out Hungry City.
Vermont is home to some interesting human-animal repercussions, e.g. beavers in Stowe and other locales. And of course black bears.
The bear issue has become a perennial issue that news outlets rely on every spring. I was slightly obsessed with it at one point. I harvested one close to our house not too long after I wrote this: https://www.jessemcentee.com/p/next-adventure-newsletter-bear-bear?r=2ts0i7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Reminds me of McPhee’s line in Annals of the Former World, something like if all of time was the length of your fingernail, one swipe of the file would erase our history. Good stuff man.
Damn- that’s a good one.
Great visuals here! Now I'm thinking, if Earth's existence was like a Hyrox competition, humans would be showing up right at the finish line (and still accepting the trophy!).
Yes- that’s exactly right!
Love the visuals!
I've read stats like this before and this morning reading I cannot help but think the newer challenge - how few can easily, or with a desire or want, to walk the rows of any agricultural field.
Yes, we in a short time have damaged our land probably not repairable in our lifetime.
Yes, we have stepped beyond a general self sustainability which includes knowing how to grow some of our own food to having the endurance to walk, bend, harvest what grows in the field. Our reliance is on an economic and broken system. Further relied upon by sedentary life practices.
There’s an irony to your point, embodied in the prevalence of riding lawn mowers. We don’t/can’t grow food so we grow grass; grass that’s not walked on, but exists only to be mowed.
I rather snorted when reading this as my husband headed out to sit on the mower for nearly two hours.
This is so brutal.
It’s dark for sure. There is hope…maybe in next week’s essay.