What are the changes in natural environment due to cultural change?

Question

What are the changes in natural environment due to cultural change?

Answer 1

Try the lower desert of El Centro California.  Try the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County in California.  Try visiting Las Vegas and then you realize that a whole city was developed from the culture of gambling.  How about the evolution of the horse drawn culture to that of the gas driven society?

Answer 2

More McDonald's.

Answer 3

How about pollution.

Answer 4

When the Romans started smelting lead, the resulting pollution appeared in Scandinavian lakes.

The industrial revolution causes moths to change color (evolving to fit in with the soot) and appeared in the Greenland glaciers. It also contributed to global warming.

The Mayan civilization used a great deal of wood to burn limestone. This was used to plaster their buildings. Eventually the supplies of wood failed or were so far away they couldn't be used. About the same time the Mayan abandoned their cities.

In the Middle East irrigation resulted in salts being left in the fields. After centuries, the land became unfit to grow crops.

The great "Dust Bowl" of the 1930s was caused by farmers plowing too deeply and a drought. Tons of soil were lost.

"Desertification" on Africa can be tracked from space. As farming exhausts the land, it becomes desert.

As biofuels become more desired, more land is planted with corn. This requires water, fertilization and large machines to grow. It's been argued this contributes to global warming.