Human society, early

Man has always exerted a heavy pressure on biodiversity. Evidence has accumulated that wherever the early human societies arrived, forest regressed, biodiversity was reduced, and the soil was eroded, while remedies were only sporadically applied (Moore 1998). Man appeared 100,000 years ago in his modem form, and was the main cause of the disappearance of the mammoth 11,000 years ago (Fig. 16.2). The practice of cutting and burning, introduced along with agriculture 7,000 years ago, resulted in extensive deforestation, which took a massive form about 300 years ago with the colonization of North America by the Europeans. 

Lead is one of the first elements known to human societies. It is described in some of the oldest books of the Old Testament and was widely used by some early civilizations. Examples of objects containing lead from fifth millennium Egyptian cultures have been found. The Greeks and Romans also used lead for the manufacture... 

The search for and use of biologically active chemicals by man dates at least to the dawn of Homo sapiens, and doubtless to his ancestors. One can speculate about why such early human societies used such agents. Likely, anything that could provide relief from the undoubted harshness and danger of life - described by the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes as, poor, nasty, brutish, and short - would be considered desirable. This search for biologically active chemicals continues today, albeit at a more sophisticated and rational level. 

Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, Carbon-dale Southern Illinois University Press (1969). Fuller, best-known for inventing the geodesic dome, was an early thinker and writer on the exhaustion of resources and the importance of building sustainability into human society and systems. 

Lead has been an important metal in human societies over many thousands of years. The low melting point, the ease with which it can be worked and the durability of lead account for its early use as a construction material. The use of lead pipes for water supply was particularly significant during the period of the Roman Empire. Lead has also been used over the years as a glaze on pottery, in cosmetics and as a means of sweetening wine [1 ]. 

Complex systems in nature - for example ecosystems - involve a dynamic interaction of many variables (e.g. animals, plants, insects and bacteria predators and prey climate, the seasons and the weather, etc.) These interactions can adapt to changing conditions but maintain a balance both between the various parts and as a whole this balance is maintained through homeostasis. Human societies are complex systems - as it were, human ecosystems. Early humans, as hunter-gatherers, recognized and worked within the parameters of the complex systems in nature and their lives were circumscribed by the realities of nature. This they did without the need to elaborately theorize on their behaviour. Only in recent centuries did the need arise to define complex systems scientifically. Complex systems theories first developed in mathematics in the late 19th century, and then in biology in the 1920s to explain ecosystems. 

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