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California Gold Rush Research Paper

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Nearly two million years ago, the first of our genus migrated through Africa under the species name of Homo erectus, a new organism that walked on two legs, with sloping foreheads and protruding jaws. Later evolving in the Homo sapiens, and then modern Homo sapiens sapiens, the human we know today quickly came into the world’s view as the top of the food chain and the predators of the period. Since their evolution in the Cenozoic era, the population of our species has grown quite literally exponentially, spreading into Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the year 2017, our population has reached a whopping 7.5 billion - a sign of near reproductive and selective perfection. Impressive without a doubt, but the environmental impact of a predator …show more content…

In the middle ages, farmers came upon the issue of barren fields after their repeated use. By planting countless crops of corn in one area of land for decades, the soil became depleted of the nutrients necessary to grow the crop (The Editors of…”). Granted, the three field system became a popular method to combat this inconvenience, but throughout history, humans constantly need to solve the issues they created themselves. During the California Gold Rush, some 100,000 non-natives rushed to San Francisco and the surrounding area in the hopes of striking literal gold. However, commercial gold mining is the largest source of mercury release, a liquid metal that causes nervous system failure, kidney damage, and even death in humans and other organisms alike (“The Gold Rush of 1849”). Even disease contamination of surface-level water is caused by humans, whether by mistake or otherwise, affects not only those bathing and cooking with the water, but those living in the water - fish, aquatic plants, etc. Even by making valiant efforts to reduce our use of coal and oil by converting to nuclear and solar energy, the waste products cause more harm than good. The land that we use again and again is treated poorly and without much thought as agriculturalism becomes a larger part of survival throughout history. …show more content…

More often than not, the society worries and frets over the impending doom posed by pollution on our own species, but the millions of other organisms feel the impact almost more than the creators of the issues themselves. In the Gulf Oil Spill of 2010, 3.19 million barrels were released into the ocean after a break in an Exxon oil pipe, and is rightfully called the worst oil spill in history. Cleaning up spilled oil is difficult in itself, but when thousands of metric tons of it spreads across the Gulf of Mexico, the job is much more substantial. Methods to remove and avoid spread as much as possible exist, but are never completely effective, especially when chemical dispersants are nearly impossible to contain. The death rate of dolphins in the area tripled, large coral reefs showed sign of immediate tissue damage, and aquatic birds became slick and unable to fly, causing many to starve. The oil spill covered in total nearly 1000 miles of ocean, and this is only example of the many that have occurred in the past twenty years (Frost, Emily). Air pollution is now the most common type of pollution, as our constant use of automobiles seems never ending. A deluge of acid rain has decimated entire forest ecosystems, and in cities such as Beijing and Singapore, the smog is so thick, many must wear masks to breathe comfortably. Countless examples of our wrong-doings on the

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