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As human technology becomes more evolved, such as that required to launch objects into orbit or to cause deforestation, the impact of human activities on the environment potentially increases. The anthroposphere is the youngest of all the Earth's spheres, yet has made an enormous impact on the Earth and its systems in a very short time.
In 2022, the most comprehensive study of pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers found that it threatens "environmental and/or human health in more than a quarter of the studied locations". It investigated 1,052 sampling sites along 258 rivers in 104 countries, representing the river pollution of 470 million people.
Foraging is the oldest subsistence pattern, with all human societies relying on it until approximately 10,000 years ago. [2] Foraging societies obtain the majority of their resources directly from the environment without cultivation. Also known as Hunter-gatherers, foragers may subsist through collecting wild plants, hunting, or fishing. [1]
An early concept for the Anthropocene was the Noosphere by Vladimir Vernadsky, who in 1938 wrote of "scientific thought as a geological force". [18] Scientists in the Soviet Union appear to have used the term Anthropocene as early as the 1960s to refer to the Quaternary, the most recent geological period.
I = (PAT) is the mathematical notation of a formula put forward to describe the impact of human activity on the environment. I = P × A × T. The expression equates human impact on the environment to a function of three factors: population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T). [1]
River engineering, a branch of civil engineering, deals with the process of planned human intervention to improve and restore rivers for human and environmental needs. With modern technologies, data collection and modelling, navigation can be improved, dredging reduced and new habitats can be created.
Cultural ecology as developed by Steward is a major subdiscipline of anthropology. It derives from the work of Franz Boas and has branched out to cover a number of aspects of human society, in particular the distribution of wealth and power in a society, and how that affects such behaviour as hoarding or gifting (e.g. the tradition of the potlatch on the Northwest North American coast).
For niche construction to affect evolution it must satisfy three criteria: 1) the organism must significantly modify environmental conditions, 2) these modifications must influence one or more selection pressures on a recipient organism, and 3) there must be an evolutionary response in at least one recipient population caused by the environmental modification.