Abstract
The questions raised by the relationship between humans and their physical environment are as old as western thought. As Glacken (1967) has pointed out, people throughout the ages have persistently asked three broad questions:
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1)
Is the Earth a purposely made creation, or, put another way, is it a divinely designed Earth for humans?
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2)
Have climate, relief, and configuration had an influence on the physical, moral, and social nature of human beings, or again, put another way, does the environment have an influence on human behavior? and
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3)
In their long tenure of Earth, have humans changed it from its hypothetical pristine condition, or are humans agents or components of ecological and geographical change?
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Recommended Readings
Anderson, E. (1956). Man as a maker of new plants and new plant communities. In: W.L. Thomas, ed. Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, pp. 763–777. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Delcourt, H.R. (1987). The impact of prehistoric agriculture and land occupation on natural vegetation. Ecology 34:341–46.
Marsh, G.P. (1864). Man and Nature: Or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action.Scribner, New York. Reprinted 1965 with introduction by D. Lowenthal, Harvard University Press (Belknap Press), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Williams, M. (1989). Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography.Cambridge University Press, New York.
Worster, D. (1977). Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas.Cambridge University Press, New York.
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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Williams, M. (1993). An Exceptionally Powerful Biotic Factor. In: McDonnell, M.J., Pickett, S.T.A. (eds) Humans as Components of Ecosystems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0905-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0905-8_3
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-98243-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0905-8
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