This article suggests what prompted our early ancestors to walk upright: in order to carry things(!) (early shoppers one supposes!).
I imagined that the deforestation mentioned was due to FIRE caused by our upright ancestors...
but fire appears to be a much more recent refinement to our corporal and cultural repertoire.
Bi-pedalism appears about 6 Million years ago. (I have a geeky Archaeology degree, forgive me!).
That's way before anything could be called "human".
Newest news:
Homo Erectus used fire...
When it comes to the prairies of the Great Plains...human fire definitely helped create the grass/bison ecosystem...
forests being all the rage soon after the last ice age...
| | The most significant type of environmental change brought about by Precolumbian human activity was the modification of vegetation. … Vegetation was primarily altered by the clearing of forest and by intentional burning. Natural fires certainly occurred but varied in frequency and strength in different habitats. Anthropogenic fires, for which there is ample documentation, tended to be more frequent but weaker, with a different seasonality than natural fires, and thus had a different type of influence on vegetation. The result of clearing and burning was, in many regions, the conversion of forest to grassland, savanna, scrub, open woodland, and forest with grassy openings. | |
Shaping the Earth's environment to suit our needs has been a great strategy for a LONG time!
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FRISHDr. Richmond, all I can say is thanks and www.vhemt.org
We volunteers are vehement!
