UNSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION

UNSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION

The use of pesticides and the fossil fuel are not the only causes of environmental damage in the present time. Humans have been damaging the environment for much longer than the last century. Clearing fields for agricultural use, which began ten thousand years ago, had a very disruptive effect on the environment. But man used water and fertilizing material to sustain agriculture. The settled societies that agriculture made possible also placed considerable strain on the environment. They cut down trees for fuel and farming land. Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean basin, and the Central America rain forests were areas where the ecology was disrupted by early human activities. Here the Mayan civilization will be discussed in detail.

The Mayas had built many cities with wonderful temples, palaces, and public buildings. And the total Mayan population was 5 million. To grow the crops needed to support their large population, the Mayas replaced the forest with a complex artificial environment consisting of raised fields and terraces with a drainage system. The MayasÚ expanding system of agriculture collapsed when the ecology of the region could no longer sustain it. There was soil erosion in the hills and the lowland was flooded. As a result, the crops decreased. The loss of food production caused increase fighting for the available resources Ù this destroyed the Mayan civilization. Like many other cases, the expansion of the Mayan civilization was unsustainable it ultimately destroyed the environment that supported it.