From earliest times, people have changed their environments. How have people today changed their environment? Discuss both the good and the bad.

Humans have altered the environment piece after piece throughout history, and the first inventions and adaptations made in the ape-men could have lead to the problems and solutions to problems today. One of the first changes we made to our environments was fire. We burned wood, cooked our preys, made the nights bright, and had warmth whenever we needed it. Fire was good since humans had more time to share ideas, were healthier with cooked food, and were overall safer. However, a con to fire was that more wildfires occurred.

Another major change that we made was when we started domesticating plants and animals. We planted and harvested plants, and had more food. We controlled fields and had more food, and a more reliable and consistent diet. When we domesticated cattle we could take our meat with us, and control where it went, what it ate, what it did, and basically plan out their whole life. Domestication was heaven for humans. However, it also had negative sides. Humans had to clear fields and sow their seeds, which might eliminate other animals and creatures living there. By planting and harvesting food we might have caused extinction of species. Also, by keeping cattle we take away the animals’ freedom, and decide every minor fact in their life. Domestication and fire are two small examples of ways we have changed our environment in the earliest times- and these ways have been the beginning of ways we are changing it now.

Today we have robots working in factories, packaged food, overuse of lumber, extinction issues, oil spills, pollution, electricity, and many things we wouldn’t even dream of having 4,000 years ago. You’d probably say that all of these are benefits of the human race, and that these are all good things to make our lives easier. However, all of these “benefits” to the human race have harmful consequences, and destructive effects on the environment. All our trash that we eat ends up in landfills taking up green land that would otherwise be the homes of thousands of animals. All the trees we chop down to make furniture and firewood also destroy animal species’ natural habitats. With all our killing of species for furs, bones, teeth, and even liquids inside bodies we are causing extinction. All our cars, airplanes, helicopters, boats and motorcycles use fuel to work- fuel that then goes into the atmosphere and breaks down the ozone layer. All of these things have two sides- they are helpful to man, but harmful to the environment. Now, scientists are finding solutions and we have started recycling, taking better care of our environment, notifying everyone and making less waste. However, we are still controlling, changing and effecting our environments, something that we started to do many thousand years ago.