How does the way we live impact our environment?

"The land was ours before we were the land's" wrote the poet Robert Frost. Since the earliest days of humans on Earth, people have adapted to the physical landscape around them. It shapes the food they eat, the homes they build, the way they move around and the environment they live in. Studying environmental history involves understanding relationships — and sometimes trade-offs — that people make with the landscapes around them.

Environmental Factors 

The land itself is the most important factor in human settlement. Do we live in the mountains, on the plains, in the forest, on a river or on the beach? Or on an island? Rivers and oceans were the first human highways. Ships moved people and goods faster and easier than people and animals on land could. Mountains and forests impeded transportation, which could have been a problem or a benefit if it protected residents from outsiders. Ocean-front housing could provide a mild climate or subject inhabitants to brutal storms. Iowans are blessed with incredibly rich soil and rainfall while desert people must be creative to grow food or raise livestock. Where we live has a major impact on the lifestyle of any people.

The air humans breathe is also a factor in our environment. For most of human history, the quality of the air has not been impacted by human activity, but with the Industrial Revolution and a demand for energy from fossil fuels like coal or gasoline, people have polluted the air with carbon products that can create a variety of challenges, like smog or acid rain. Oxygen-depleting pollutants have reconfigured the layers of air surrounding the earth leading to warming temperatures and evolving rainfall patterns.

Water also is an important environmental factor. When water is in short supply, efforts sometimes divert rivers for agriculture or store it behind massive dams to create hydroelectric power. Fertilizer run-off from farm fields seeps into underwater water reserves or flows into rivers and streams altering natural balances.

Renewable Energy

Some energy sources like wind power or sun light are termed renewable energy sources because using them does not decrease their availability. Fuels derived from plant matter like wood, natural gas, oil or coal are nonrenewable sources because they can be depleted. For the most part, fossil fuels present the greatest environmental challenges because they increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Nuclear fuels pose the danger of increased radioactivity when a reactor malfunctions and nuclear wastes create a problem for disposal. When nations were conducting nuclear tests in the atmosphere, radioactive drift traveled far beyond the test site to threaten resources thousands of miles away.

Environmental protection challenges a world divided into nation states because human activity can impact land, the air and water far beyond the site were the activity occurs. Keeping our world safe is a truly world challenge.

Supporting Questions

Why are landforms important? 

• Sierra Nevada Mountain Pass, 1867 (Image)
• Valley of the Mississippi River near Clinton, Iowa, 1899 (Image)
• Des Moines River Valley, 1901 (Image)
• Grand Canyon in Arizona, 1913 (Image)
• Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah, 1993 (Image)
• Sweet Corn Field near Marengo, Iowa, August 8, 2016 (Image)

What are renewable and nonrenewable resources?

• Mississippi River Power Plant in Keokuk, Iowa, 1910 (Image)
• Thomas Lake Logging Camp, April 21, 1910 (Image)
• Harvesting Wheat in Walla Walla County, Washington, between July and September 1941 (Image)
• Remains of the Old Carissa Gold Mine in South Pass City, Wyoming, May 27, 2016 (Image)
• Farm Scene with Wind Turbines in Hardin County, Iowa, August 18, 2016 (Image)

What impact do people have on our environment?

• Cabinet Portrait of Iowa U.S. Representative John Lacey, ca. 1890 (Image)
• U.S. Rep. John Lacey’s Bill about the Department of Agriculture, 1900 (Document)
• President Theodore Roosevelt and Conservationist John Muir on Glacier Point, 1903 (Image)
• Letter from Louis Hermann Pammel to the Bank President in Steamboat Rock, Iowa, December 27, 1916 (Document)
• "Legislation on State Parks" Essay from The Annals of Iowa, 1921 (Document)
• Louis Hermann Pammel Speaking at Dedication of Ledges State Park in Iowa, October 9, 1924 (Image)
• Iowa State Parks including Lakes and Streams, 1927 (Map)
• Polluted Stream in Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940 (Image)
• Girl Scout in Canoe Picking Up Trash in Potomac River, April 22, 1970 (Image)
• Traffic on Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, California, 2012 (Image)
• Aerial View of Four-Way Interchange in Los Angeles, California, Date Unknown (Image)