GEF

Unit 2  |  Humanity’s Ecological Footprint 38 2.2  EMERGENCE OF MODERN HUMANS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE Even though humans are relatively new to the planet, we have rapidly developed an outsized ecological footprint. When modern humans first developed, they lived exclusively as hunter-gatherers , hunting wild animals and gathering food from nature. Hunter-gatherers had a relatively small ecological footprint with little impact on global ecosystems. HUNTER-GATHERERS People who obtain their food and other resources from wild, rather than domesti- cated, sources. WATCH & LEARN http://bit.ly/2rS9uR9 Watch the video and respond to the questions below. 1. Name two innovations that led to the emergence of large-scale agriculture 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. 2. Which has a larger ecological footprint—hunter-gatherers or agricultural settlements? 3. What is salinization and how does it affect farmland? video: Early Agriculture Resource Depletion