Historical Awareness of Human-Originated Environmental Change

Human beings have been changing the face of nature for millennia, and changing the climate for almost as long. But for millennia after this process began, there was little awareness that it was taking place. When environmental change took place, people ascribed it to natural forces such as weathering (as did Plato: see below). Subsequently, through many gradual stages, people became aware first that humanity could change local environments and climates, then that this was a general as well as a local phenomenon, and eventually that it could involve not only benefits but also serious harm both to humanity and to nature, and that local attempts should be made to halt and reverse these trends. Ultimately it was realized that the harms generated by human-generated (anthropogenic) change were not confined to particular countries but global in their extent, and that counteractive policies were needed wherever they were taking place.