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What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on (a) native Americans and (b) Europeans between 1500 and 1700?

1. How has a focus on the environment fundamentally reshaped the ways in which we study the human past?

2. What is ‘environmental determinism’ and what are its strengths and weaknesses as an approach towards the study of humanity’s evolution?

3. What role did the environment play in shaping the essential features of the human species over the past 2 million years?

4. What environmental factors help explain (a) the movement of humans (i.e. Homo sapiens) out of Africa c. 50,000-100,000 years ago and/or (b) the pattern of human migration across the world over the next 40,000 years or so?

5. Why did the Neanderthals become extinct?

6. What are the strengths and weaknesses of foraging (i.e. hunting and gathering) as a means of exploiting the environment?

7. Did humans kill off megafauna (i.e. large mammals and birds) when they arrived in new lands (e.g. North America, Australia) and if so why?

8. What environmental factors shaped the domestication of (a) the dog and/or (b) the cow and/or (c) the llama?

9. Compare and contrast the relative environmental benefits of a nomadic or foraging lifestyle with a settled and agricultural lifestyle.

10. What was the environmental impact of the so-called ‘Agricultural Revolution’?

11. What are the key environmental features of ‘civilization’?

12. Discuss the main environmental features of any of the following civilizations: (a) Sumerian, (b) Egyptian, (c) ancient Chinese, (d) Roman.

13. What role did (a) soil erosion and/or (b) deforestation play in the downfall of any one of the ancient civilizations studied in this course?

14. Compare and contrast the view of nature held by Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek and Early Christian civilization.

15. What is the ‘Malthusian Cycle’ and how does it explain the rise and fall of civilizations?

16. Are all civilizations doomed to fail due to ecological over-expansion?

17. What key environmental advances were made during the Middle Ages between c. 500 and 1500 AD?

18. Was the Black Death of the mid-1300s an environmental crisis?

19. What environmental factors underpinned the so-called ‘European Outthrust’ of the 1400s that culminated in Columbus’ voyage to America?

20. What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on (a) native Americans and (b) Europeans between 1500 and 1700?

21. What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on Africa between 1500 and 1700?

22. What was the ecological impact of the Columbian Exchange on Asia between 1500 and 1700?

23. How and why did the Columbian Exchange end the environmental isolation of Afro-Eurasia, the Americas, the Pacific and Australasia?

24. What were the environmental origins of the Industrial Revolution of c. 1750-1850?

25. What was the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution?

26. In marking a shift in reliance on renewable energy sources (e.g. human, animal, wind, water, etc.) to non-renewable energy sources (i.e. fossil fuels), the Industrial Revolution marks the greatest single transition in human history: discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this proposition.

27. The Industrial Revolution ensured that the future fate of the majority of mankind would to become wage-earning labourers rather than independent, self-sufficient peasant farmers. From an environmental point of view, was this a positive or negative development?

28. What environmental impact did the rise of industrial cities have in the 19^th and 20^th centuries?

29. The roots of global warming lie in developments that took place during the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago: discuss.

30. The world’s population reached 1 billion for the first time c. 1820; it reached 2 billion in 1930; by 2000 it had reached 6 billion. What are (a) the environmental causes and/or (b) the environmental impacts of this unprecedented scale of population growth in the 20^th century?

31. The majority of the world’s population live in developing or underdeveloped nations in conditions that resemble pre-industrial or even medieval lifeways: what environmental factors explaining this enduring and even increasing scale of inequality between various regions of the world?

32. What are the distinctive environmental features of the modern city in the 20^th century?

33. The 20^th century saw two fundamental demographic developments: (1) the decline of the peasant and the rise of the urban labourer and (b) the global rise of the urban poor and city slums. With this in mind, to what extent do cities represent (a) a sign of progress or (b) a sign of decline in terms of environmental sustainability?

34. Why do vast numbers of the underdeveloped world continue to die of diseases that have long been eradicated or contained in the developed world?

35. In the developed world, leading causes of death include automobile accidents, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity-related illnesses. What are the environmental factors that make life in the affluent developed nations so dangerous?

36. By raising productivity (i.e. production per person) and exploiting overseas resources and markets, modern industrial nations have broken that Malthusian Cycle that doomed all previous civilizations. Do you agree or disagree with this statement regarding the long-term environmental sustainability of the world today?

37. Human activities have always resulted in pollution: in what ways did the 20^th century mark a revolution in the level and nature of human pollution of the planet?

38. The USA represents 5% of the world’s population and consumes 25% of the world’s energy: this fact alone ensures that world is headed towards a crisis that can be delayed but not, ultimately, avoided. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

39. What is the ‘Gaia Hypothesis’ (as proposed by James Lovelock) and what are its implications for human survival?

40. As a species, humans have (so far) had a mid-range longevity of c. 200,000 years or so. Yet in that short time, we have transformed the Earth and its biosphere more than any other species in the history of the planet. In the event of our extinction, what lasting environmental impact will we leave on the planet?