Uncharted territory - environment and population beyond six billion

Abstract: "That human populations can exert strains upon their natural surrounding is nothing new. However, from the dawn of history until about thirty years ago, the impacts of human activities were primarily localized. Early regional civilizations – Mesopotamia in the Near East, Mohenjo Daro in Southwest Asia, the Mayans of Central America, possibly the Anasazi in the southwest of what is now the United States – collapsed due to a likely combination of overpopulation and scarcity or depletion of arable land and water supply. In some places, archaeologists have found evidence of adverse environmental effects caused by deforestation and by gradual salinization of irrigated land. The final blow may have been a regional climate change: a succession of unusual dry years, probably ascribed by local spiritual leaders to angry or capricious gods. Many centuries before the Aswan High Dam, Herodotus wrote of salinization in the Nile Delta. Much later, rapid industrialization in Europe and North Amer

Object Details

• Alternative title: Unbekanntes Territorium - Umwelt und Bevölkerung jenseits sechs Milliarden
• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 26 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Technik - Arbeit - Umwelt, Forschungsprofessur Umweltpolitik ; Bd. 00-406

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2000
• Creator: Benedick, Richard Elliot
• Contributor: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-116005
• Rights: Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 25.03.2025, 1:54 PM CET