THE DYNAMICS OF MAN'S HISTORY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A REFOCUS ON ECOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract

Man’s history and developmental endeavour have been advancing alongside a trail of ecological ramifications and climate change. Since prehistoric times, scientists have not recorded an accelerated shift in ecology during any other epoch beside that of modern man on the planet. The paper seeks to explore how man’s history and development affects ecology and climate. It uses desk analysis to recollect data from global assessment reports and runs a One paired Sample Means t-Test, 1 tailed, 8 df, at Pearson Correlation value 0.458 and 0.5  level. Findings show that, there is global climate change, seen in global warming trends; and imbalance in ecological footprint, seen in depletion of air, water and land sinks. The t-Testreveals significant net loss of global forest cover. The study also, found that at present,processes of development generally tend to damage ecology. Therefore, the study recommends a refocus to sustainable means of development.