what are the most serious errors in land use made by modern man, and how can they be rectified?

Question

are there better ways to work with the land to prevent past errors: pollution, erosion, deforestation? how can we return the wilderness to nature and still support ourselves at the same time?

Answer 1

Permaculture: Yeoman's keyline system for storage of water by opening up the land.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpAPRlg2Zgs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTaNCpmp7Yk
The cheapest form of storage is the actual soil. Modern agricultural practices involve heavy machinery and plows which compact soil and subsoil creating a plow pan. The work of Peter Andrews on the Australian story demonstrates a better method of using the natural contours and diverting streams to flood what were once flood plains.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7pMDHJ1sbY

Permaculture - Bill Mollison is all about capturing energies passing through the eco system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUr4uPe9WBk
Reclaiming the desert by desalting and re-greening the desert. Desertification is caused by the removal of vegetation and subsequent over irrigation of soil. See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk
All water is diverted away from property and roads due to planning and building regulations. This legislation prevents water from being put to its full potential. It would naturally be stored in the soil, trees, and in other plants.

What about small scale rainwater harvesting? Water use including agricultural, manufacturing, building and residential use of potable water when grey water could be used. If we did not rely on chemical cleaners, additives, processing methods and products.

Obvious answer to deforestation is to replant deforested areas with trees. Erosion - coastal erosion is caused by altering the natural flow of water by erecting inappropriate sea defenses. Soil erosion would be cured by attention to all of the above.

As far as returning the wilderness to nature and supporting ourselves there is still a lot of work to be done on this subject. However, good Permaculture Design is a start.

Answer 2

One thing would be to allow for much more open green space in developing cities.

Once a city earns the tag of being a desirable place to live, more people come and developers buy land for investment and build on the land to maximize profits. The value of adjacent land rises and local governments can no longer afford to purchase land from private landowners to create parks and open space. The city becomes more dense with people, vehicles, pavement etc.

Current design standards require that erosion be minimized during construction to prevent water pollution. Deforestation is not allowed in many places now so that timber can be harvested as the renewable resource that it is.

It's all a matter of economics and location. "Hot Spots" become expensive and rural areas do not.

More serious errors in land use occurred years ago in the days when waste was not treated and simply dumped in the streams. Areas were strip mined and vacuumed of the natural resources, gold mines etc.

Answer 3

Modern man in his greed to make more and more MONEY has spoilt the earth in every possible way. In fact HE has abused this planet to the maximum extent. What he can do now ? 1. De-congest the cities. 2. Plant more & more trees -create more forests. 3. The Early man - who was more wise definitely - set an example of living along the river basins. Follow that example. 4. Connect the rivers - 5. Stop the wastage of precious water. 6. There are some people & organisation who are continuously striving for upgrading the Environment, support then in a BIG way. One such organisation in Bangalore, India is UNNATHI founded by Sri. V. Srinivasa Raju. 7. Finally, if you can not HELP atleast DO NOT SPOIL it should be the motto of every one.

Answer 4

This question can best answered by defining your world view. Some would take the biblical view to be fruitful/multiply and take stewardship of the land; But what does that mean? One response to your question brought up the question of overpopulation. Should we advocate mass sterilization (sorta being done with the millions of abortions performed each year and the millions killed by Hitler and Stalin.)? Then we should also advocate letting starvation (a natural remedy) happen? Let mankind die out, we can each do our part, eh? Do we not contribute to the problem by demanding Yukons and Escalades cell phones and air conditioned houses? We should praise the homeless who have minimal impact on the environment, as they even fertilize the ground where ever they go. They waste no food, since some of it comes out of the garbage can and they run around town picking up recyclables. They don't waste water washing their clothes either.

Answer 5

Hello.
I don't knovv vvhat are the most seriovs errors in land vse made by modern man are as I believe there are too many and all seriovs. I believe they may be rectified by going back to basic natvre.
Great video: Part 1,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUr4uPe9WBk&mode=related&search=
vvhole video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6370279933612522952&q=Permaculture&total=181&start=20&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

Take care and help as mvch as yov can.






Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
-Francis Bacon

Answer 6

I grew up in Oregon at a time when the mountains were covered with trees, real honest to god Douglas Fir Trees, old growth trees. When trees were logged for lumber, they were replanted at the rate of 2 to 1, on the chance that 1 of the trees would survive and regrow the forest. Also, underbrush was regularly cleared fromthe forests as they were logged.

That became too burdensome for modern day logging operations, and instead they want to clear cut all mountains, making them look as if a gigantic razor came along and shaved off the mountains.

Result: TOTAL EROSION of the mountainside, polluting all the rivers in the mountains, running off into the Oceans.

Simple solution, but no one will do it. Reforest the mountains, and go back to logging responsibly if and when the mountains ever reforest themselves.

Answer 7

A long time ago, around the 60's, a collage student from New Jersey, designed this "ribbon city". It entaled a long super structure that contained everything nessesary to sustain life, The underground was for transportation of products, manufacturing, etc. The next level was manufacturing, etc. then came commercial business, etc. Next level, shopping, schools, etc. The next upper floors were living quarters, as many as was needed to house the humans. Each horizontan "segment " supported 500,000 people and contained everything needed. The sports arenas, were satilites branching off of the main ribbon. The rest of the surrounding land was for farming, power generation, forestry, etc.

Eliminated was, private homes in the suburbs.
All highways and roads.
Elimination of oil for fuel.
Cars, trucks and busses, trains, airplanes.(The transportation system was incorporated in the ribbon city via high speed underground railways, and vertical, horizontal and diagonal transportation pods throughout the complex).
Any and all things that we normally see in our everyday lives today.

I really do not have the time to describe the pros and cons in this answer, but my intention is to give all of you the idea of a new concept to think about.

When you look at the Canals on Mars, could they be the remains of the ribbon cities of their time?

Think about it!

Answer 8

Well, the most serious errors occur when humans think that they can change nature, when they actually can't change nature.

When that occur, usually humans have to pay a big price.

Humans should realize that they are part of nature, therefore they can't change nature either for the best or the worst.

The easiest way for humans to be part of nature is to live from nature and not nature live from humans.



As for pollution, erosion, deforestation, and so on.

Nature do those things all the time, with and without humans.

Answer 9

The way I feel that in today's society...some people really wants to get out of the city and concrete establishments and move to a more greenery place.
I, myself is one of those people. When I was young, I lived at a farm where my parents used it for raising chickens and also selling the chickens for food and other things. We lived in houses that are made of wood, but the interior I couldn't say any less then what the modern type of living would be like at that time. Since, I moved to Singapore and Canada in my early years, I lived in concrete blocks everyday. Leaving me wanting the greenery. As I grew up, I got used to the concrete and yet felt comfortable with it until one fine day, I went home when I was 20, and then that changed my feelings again for living in a natural way. I never thought today, I would move back to my home country and traveled around to countries that actually had houses that are built with natural materials like wood as the house and bamboo as my furniture. I am currently living in one of them. I am loving the nature, even though I still have to work in the city. But this is something that is a start for me. So, if the people who wants to get into this kind of living style, we can't change all at once. Start by living in a natural house and then slowly build your own future and sustainability of your own living so that we all can return to the nature one more time to save our Mother Earth.

Answer 10

the most serious errors have already occurred, and for the most part have been rectified. that of leaving mine tailings on the land. that is no longer legal. we have done many things to reduce pollution, required emissions controls on automobiles, requiring cafe standards, requiring emission systems to be installed on industrial plants, requiring environmental impact statements before choosing new building locations, etc. erosion is being worked on by reinforcing hte banks of rivers with old tires, and chain mats along with natural grass and other plants. deforestation isnt the problem it once was, at least not in this country. we have new ways of fighting forest fires, companies that cut down trees, also replant new trees to rebuild the forests on private land. it would do no good to cut down every tree in the US because many industries would then die. on public land trees that are sick are cut out of the forest and new plants are allowed to grow.

can we do more? yes we can, BUT we HAVE to be responsible in how we use our resources, and we have to be responsible in laws we make regarding how we manage those resources. we have to honor the land, but we also have to continue to advance.