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However, the type and evolution of the particular nature of the climate change experienced by the earth seems clearly due to the impact of human existence. Ruddiman takes a roughly chronological approach, and slowly takes the reader through the history of climatic shifts -- before humans became tillers of the land and afterwards. Major milestones in human history correspond with major anomalies in the earth's climate and atmospheric levels of important gases.
Changes in Earth's orbit occur at regular and predictable cycles every ten thousand years or so and roughly correspond to Earth's major shifts in climates, either in the direction of ice ages or tropical phases. Noting the anomalous, recent increases of carbon dioxide...
To those who would merely shake their heads and say 'oh, the earth has always had climatic shifts,' Ruddiman would respond that the peculiar and particular nature of the atmospheric levels of the most recent climate shifts, since the development of agriculture, are what should concern us (Ruddiman 12). Cutting and burning of forests for pasture 8, 000 years ago caused a spike in carbon dioxide, when such levels should be going down -- a similar trend emerged regarding methane with the wide-spread domestication of cattle 5,000 years ago.
Global warming deniers will likely dispute Ruddiman's estimations of emissions so far back in human history. However, his contentions give rise to another important question, even for believers in global warming -- if sustaining ourselves, even through the most basic kinds of agriculture has had such a seismic impact upon the planet, what is a feasible way for human beings to live in harmony with the…
The more political arguments against Ruddiman are more easily dismissed, however. Synthesis and Evaluation It must be acknowledged -- and is, in fact, acknowledged by Ruddiman -- that there is not complete scientific certainty that the current warming trend the Earth is experiencing, if indeed it is experiencing one, is the result of human behavior, and specifically the use of fossil fuels. The evidence that Ruddiman presents in Plows, Plagues, and
He also cites some of the possible positive benefits to the global warming that is being experienced, while questioning the more dire predictions that have been made in this regard. Ruddiman is not refuted in this article, but the questions that lie at the foundations of his theories are clearly and explicitly exposed. Silver, Cheryl Simon. One Earth, One Future. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 1992. This author provides a broad
He describes how wild grains and animals were domesticated, as well as the new technologies that made farming possible (sickles, baskets, pestles, gourds, irrigation, the wheel, the plow). He uses a chart to plot these movements. His evidence is mainly archeological, historical, and botanical with heavy doses of appeal to imaginary scenarios. Its power to convince is narrational. His ultimate point in cataloguing this change is to assert how,
Humanity might not have the same effective power over the environment when fossil fuels run out. While this assumption is certainly believable, humans will not doubt reach a point where the greenhouse gas absorbing plants and bodies will no longer be able to keep up with human activity. This will further exacerbate the problem of human-caused global climate change. On the other hand, if humans are able to develop
5 billion pounds is up 2.3% from December 2006. Angier lists all the plastic-based materials around her desk at the Times and in her personal life, including her computer keyboard, credit card, telephones, her motorcycle helmet, luggage, earrings, for starters. Plastics also pad mattresses, "elasticize our comfort-fit jeans, suture our wounds, plug our dental cavities, encapsulate our pills, replace our lost limbs, lighten our cars and jets" and much more