societies and innovations, both in social structure and in relations of people to the
landscape.
3.7 Human-Mediated Disturbance in the Medium Term
Perhaps 75% of earth’s ice-free lands show evidence of human-mediated disturbance
and landscape transformation (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008, cited in Dobrovolski
2012). That does not mean all environmental disasters have human drivers (Witcher
2013), though obviously some of them do. Human impacts have been divided into
anthromes and wildlands (Ellis 2013). Anthromes are described as “anthropogenic
biomes.” Wildlands are areas more or less untouched by human influences other than
possible climate change. Anthromes are further divided into a continuum that
includes “dense settlements, villages and croplands to rangelands and seminatural
lands with only minor human populations and land use”; wildlands are “without
human populations or land use” (Ellis 2013). Anthromes need not result in species
impoverishment, since even in ancient and contemporary cities, including megacities, “significant green spaces” have been retained; the result is a mosaic of
architecture and greenspace, including urban gardens in certain contexts (Ellis
2013), such as that of Tokyo and Osaka, with abundances of greenspace and
urban gardens that are not merely aesthetically pleasing but sources of food and
other utilitarian goods. Environmental deterioration is not the inevitable outcome of
landscape transformation, population growth, and conurbation.
Human population is expected to peak in the next 30 or 40 years; it is possible that
abandoned rangeland will experience “widespread ecosystem recovery” as rural
dwellers cease the cultivation of marginally arable land (Ellis 2013). Ellis (2013)
suggests that if the right political decisions are taken, “global trends in species
extinctions might be reversed at the same time as human populations thrive and
reach their expected peak.” I agree with this assessment, though urban landscapes,
especially in megacities (such as Jakarta, Mexico City, São Paulo), contain elements
of disenfranchisement. In some cases, marginalized and underemployed urban
dwellers could return (or migrate) to rural zones. A balance needs to be struck
between urban civilization and the wildlands that formerly transformed landscapes
wherein the diversity emerging in the latter is not harmed and poverty and inaccessibility to the benefits of modern life in the city are not exacerbated. Applied
historical ecology has potential to contribute to such a discussion and project.
3 Historical Ecology of Societal Nucleation and Collapse
41
landscape.
3.7 Human-Mediated Disturbance in the Medium Term
Perhaps 75% of earth’s ice-free lands show evidence of human-mediated disturbance
and landscape transformation (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008, cited in Dobrovolski
2012). That does not mean all environmental disasters have human drivers (Witcher
2013), though obviously some of them do. Human impacts have been divided into
anthromes and wildlands (Ellis 2013). Anthromes are described as “anthropogenic
biomes.” Wildlands are areas more or less untouched by human influences other than
possible climate change. Anthromes are further divided into a continuum that
includes “dense settlements, villages and croplands to rangelands and seminatural
lands with only minor human populations and land use”; wildlands are “without
human populations or land use” (Ellis 2013). Anthromes need not result in species
impoverishment, since even in ancient and contemporary cities, including megacities, “significant green spaces” have been retained; the result is a mosaic of
architecture and greenspace, including urban gardens in certain contexts (Ellis
2013), such as that of Tokyo and Osaka, with abundances of greenspace and
urban gardens that are not merely aesthetically pleasing but sources of food and
other utilitarian goods. Environmental deterioration is not the inevitable outcome of
landscape transformation, population growth, and conurbation.
Human population is expected to peak in the next 30 or 40 years; it is possible that
abandoned rangeland will experience “widespread ecosystem recovery” as rural
dwellers cease the cultivation of marginally arable land (Ellis 2013). Ellis (2013)
suggests that if the right political decisions are taken, “global trends in species
extinctions might be reversed at the same time as human populations thrive and
reach their expected peak.” I agree with this assessment, though urban landscapes,
especially in megacities (such as Jakarta, Mexico City, São Paulo), contain elements
of disenfranchisement. In some cases, marginalized and underemployed urban
dwellers could return (or migrate) to rural zones. A balance needs to be struck
between urban civilization and the wildlands that formerly transformed landscapes
wherein the diversity emerging in the latter is not harmed and poverty and inaccessibility to the benefits of modern life in the city are not exacerbated. Applied
historical ecology has potential to contribute to such a discussion and project.
3 Historical Ecology of Societal Nucleation and Collapse
41