Valerie Sanchez

Mrs.Cabarcas
September 24, 2017

Human Interaction With The

Environment
Global History unit 9.2 Project

Since the beginning of time, every society has had to address enduring issues with
different results. One during issue is human interaction with the environment. This issue was
apparent even during the early river valley era when ancient Egyptians had an unreliable access
to water. This oldest known civilization present from 3300 to 2500 BCE, was along the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East also known as Mesopotamia, meaning "land between the
rivers. To address this issue, humans have created irrigation systems and political reform
changes.
To address the issue of Human interaction with the environment ancient civilizations in
Mesopotamia created irrigation systems. Irrigation systems are a way for water by means of
pipes, sprinklers, ditches, or stream to supply crops and lands. Studies report that on the earth
there is only 2.5% fresh water and from that 2.5% one-third is available to human use
(Agriculture-Meeting the water Challenge). In the Neolithic revolution , humans started to
cultivate crops and domesticating animals, this change in society turned heads for the necessity
of water as they needed a reliable source to harvest there crops. In document 2a it illustrates that
Egyptians used shadufs (hand-operated device for lifting water, ) to help them transfer water
from the Nile to their fields. In the problem that fields were too high to receive water from the
canals, water was drawn from the canals or the Nile directly by a swape or shadufs helping them
adapt to the ever-changing floods of the Nile. To add on, greek temples recorded that canals (
bed irrigation system) which irrigated the region allowed them to cultivate crops during the
winter and summer which meant they could cultivate 2 crops yearly.

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 These tactics allowed humans to survive in the constantly changing environment and
seasons in our so called earth helping them to adapt and settle.
In continuation to the enduring issue of humanly interaction with the environment humans
on the other hand not only created irrigation systems to adapt to the environment but they made
some political reform changes. To begin with, with agriculture having a immense success in the
civilizations they had to make sure each farmer received his rightfully earned access to water for
there labor. Furthermore, Farmers whom did not have access to water canals running through
their land, law allowed them to have access to canals of farmers land. Moreover, laws concerning
the water shared between fellow laborers also prohibited people from taking water without
contributing to the labor of filling the canal with water. Thus meaning, if farmers/laborers did not
help filling the canal they had no access to it. This fair law, created peace among the farmers
because it allowed them all access to the water but they had to earn there right to do so if not
they were put to death. Laws allowed to settle disputes how how land and water would be
distributed created the beginning of a centralized government and civilization. Never less,
Political reformatory changes allowed a fair system in which the irrigation system could be
handled between the people.
To further conclude, over time humans have always have had to face enduring issues in
many way and have had to create a solution to their complications. In Ancient river valley
civilization as the neolithic revolution rise upon all civilizations, more communities grasped onto
the idea of agriculture. This result of cultural diffusion and humanly interaction with the
environment advanced the ancient river valleys techniques on how to receive and handle there
supply of water. New water strategies were created to handle the aspects of the civilizations now
daily life. Furthermore, Political reformatory changes were inputed and irrigation systems were
created. Years after in todays generation irrigation systems are still in use to distribute water in
areas not reachable by water. Examples of todays irrigation system would be Surface irrigation,
Localized irrigation, Drip irrigation, Sprinkler irrigation, Center pivot irrigation, Lateral move
irrigation, Sub-irrigation, Manual irrigation. Still with these ever-ending options of irrigation to
supply lands with water, todays water supply is scarce and as 2.5% of the ocean body is fresh
water and 1/3 of it can be used. To continue, with all these methods of irrigation to reach
different areas todays world still faces problems like water shortages. Beyond recall, humans

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always created solutions to the obstacles they faced at any era, time and place including the
ancient river valley civilizations.

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