The Role of Human Activities in Past Environmental Change

Abstract

A crucial task for modern environmental science is to document and understand the ways in which human impacts on the earth system interact with other processes of global change. Such understanding is an essential prerequisite for establishing the consequences of further population growth and increased economic activity, with all their implications in terms of higher demands on energy, water and a wide range of resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Most of the research in this field draws on a combination of methodologies, for example remote sensing, environmental monitoring, experiments, large scale observation programs and modeling, all of which rely on a relatively short time span of empirical knowledge — usually a few years or decades at most. The purpose of the present chapter is not simply to consider past human impacts on the environment on longer time-scales but to explore the extent to which the longer time perspective contributes to an enhanced view of potential future changes and impacts.