Humans and geography

(Frederick Engels – from The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man)

Engels saw nature as the starting point of human activity. Karl Marx called nature: “man’s inorganic body”, humans’ “original larder” and “original tool house”. These socialist pioneers rejected the idea that humans were somehow separated or aloof from the natural world – humanity is part and parcel of the natural world. Engels also showed how, while we might understand the “first results” of human actions, we had to go on to examine the “second” and “third” consequences. In other words, it’s not enough just to see the immediate area that the forest fire has burnt down, but also to look at the effects on the food chain in the wider area of the forest and the effects of fires on the atmosphere.
Recently (the term ‘ecology’ wasn’t used until 1869), science gave some of these basic thoughts of Engels a name – the study of ecosystems. This is the understanding that all living and non-living matter, including humans, exist together in a complex and constantly changing web of interaction with each other. Scientists’ talk of food chains in a commonly used example of how these complex relationships work. All life relies upon what can seem to be the tiniest and most insignificant leaves, mosses or bacteria. Therefore, intervention at one level has repercussions for the entire chain.
Human intervention has both accelerated natural processes and added extra complications. For example, it is estimates that 99.9% of all species that have existed on the planet are now extinct. Nearly all of this is due to natural processes of selection and evolution. There have been five ‘mass extinctions’ in the history of the Earth, when between 65% and 95% of all species were wiped out. Some scientists now argue that we are heading for a ‘sixth extinction’, caused by the actions of humans. Human intervention over the past few centuries has rapidly increased the pace of natural extinction, with unknown and potentially very damaging effects on ecosystems. The United Nations estimate that 11% of all known mammal species, 18% of birds, and 5% of fish are currently under threat of extinction. A 1995 UN report predicts that, on current trends of over-exploitation and clearing of habitats, half of all bird and mammal species will be extinct in 300 years. The consequences of this are felt both by non-human nature, through loss of habitat and food, and by humans, as many of these species, if scientifically investigated, could potentially contain sources of food and medicine. Obviously today, if we were to say that nature was “man’s inorganic body”, most people would comment that, in that case, we must be going in for some pretty heavy self-mutilation! We have made the points above to show what is essential about the relationship of human society to the rest of the environment. Humans, from the time when they first started to walk on the planet, have has the ability to increasingly transform the planet and are busily doing that. They also, though, have the ability to foresee the consequences of much of their action and to decide to avoid what could be destructive or threatening.