Human Aspect

There is no doubt, that humans rely directly and indirectly on nature for their survival and that humans are taking a toll on the environment in which they live. The majority of, the world's population receives its food supply from sustainable agriculture practices, which began with the selection of wild seeds several thousand years ago. This domestication of plants and animals began in the Fertile Crescent, the early crops of this region included, garbanzos, vetch, olives, wine grapes and dates. These early agricultural practices led to the selection and hybridization of the crops which we now eat today.

Modern agriculture has done away with the slow process of natural selection and hybridization. Agricultural scientist now use laboratory techniques and more recently genetic engineering to gain more desirable characteristics in crops. Many of the modern, crops are being crossed with old, less hybridized or lesser known plants in the same family, this is resulting in a new age of super crops which will produce higher quality food, than their predecessors. For this reason it is important that human kind does not allow the biodiversity of the world to slip away, since the plants we loose today could be the cure for the diseases of tomorrow. Not only do humans effect the environment through agriculture; they also rapidly transform environments into shopping malls, or housing developments, often destroying, habitat for animals. In industrialized nations petroleum products drive the economy, by fueling our cars and other modes of transportation, decayed organic material is essential to the health of the global economy, in less industrialized areas organic matter such as wood and coal are important, parts of the everyday lives of the people. Since many people around the world still use wood fires to cook over and cities are lighted by coal, power plants. It as been shown that the world cannot sustain another century like the past one with over 1,000 species going extinct for every new species which evolves. Where everything, which is consumed, is replaced, keeping an accurate balance of the diversity of life on earth will be essential to the survival of humankind.