'Pristine' Landscapes Haven't Existed For Thousands Of Years Due To Human Activity

Eurekalert! ^ | June 6th, 2016 | University of Oxford

[SunkenCiv]

It draws on fossil evidence showing Homo sapiens was present in East Africa around 195,000 years ago and that our species had dispersed to the far corners of Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas by 12,000 years ago. This increase in global human populations is linked with a variety of species extinctions, one of the most significant being the reduction by around two-thirds of 150 species of 'megafauna' or big beasts between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, says the paper, with their disappearance having 'dramatic effects' on the structure of the ecosystem and seed dispersal.

...second... the advent of agriculture worldwide, placed new evolutionary pressures on plants and animals that had 'unprecedented and enduring' effects on the distribution of species, according to the paper. The data highlighted shows that domesticated sheep, goats and cattle were first in the Near East 10,500 years ago, and arrived in Europe, Africa and South Asia within a few millennia. Chickens, originally domesticated in East Asia, reached Britain by the second half of the last millennium and now outnumber people by more than three to one globally, says the paper. Meanwhile, it also highlights research showing that the domestication of dogs happened before the emergence of agricultural societies, with around 700 million to one billion dogs in the world today. By contrast with domesticated animals, the percentage of truly wild vertebrates left today as a result of these long-term processes is described as 'vanishingly small'.

Thirdly, the paper outlines the impact of the human colonisation of islands. It observes that the resulting movement of species was so common that archaeologists speak of 'transported landscapes'. With the humans came new species, fire, deforestation and predatory threats to indigenous animals and birds.

Finally, the paper outlines the effects of an expansion in trade from the Bronze Age onwards...

[John O]

hogwash. Humans are natural. Therefore anything they do is by definition “pristine”