Which qualities of early man enabled him to live in forest?
Answers
There always seem to be an inverse relationship between technological growth and the “well-being” of the environment. The more sophisticated technology humans are equipped with, the easier it is to make an impact on the environment. Technology enables us to control and exploit our surrounding to our needs. This innate characteristics of humans to exploit the environment at the expense of the ecosystem and other animals that share the environment with us was also exhibited in our ancestors. Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens, and Homo Sapiens Sapiens all had impacted the environments they lived in, even though the degree to which they affected the environment varied depending on their respective technological advancements or the lack thereof. In his publication, “A Green History of the World”, Pointing asserts that the gathering and hunting way of life of early humans as, “the most successful and flexible way of life adopted by humans and the one that caused the least damage to natural ecosystems” (Pointing, 18). Whether it was successful or not is arguable but there is no doubt that this way of life caused the minimum damage to the environment. Even though it looks like Pointing is trying to portray the early gatherers and hunters as environmental conscience beings, this paper argues that the sole reason why they lived the harmonious life with the environment was due to the lack of technology advancements. This paper also tries to show how the introduction of technology was necessary for survival and how it affected the interaction between early humans and the environment changed.