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Essay / Planet Earth Review
Our planet is 4.6 billion years old. It underwent violent geological alteration, meteorite attacks, fiery volcanic eruptions and the formation of tectonic plates until 2.5 billion years ago, when it reached its current size. Life on the planet dates back 3.8 billion years with the formation of single-celled organisms that evolved into multicellular organisms. Land forms were slowly swallowed up by life in the form of plants and trees 475 million years ago, transforming the planet into the blue-green orb we recognize today as Earth. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Homo sapiens has walked this planet for 200,000 years, which is only 0.004% of Earth's lifespan . During this insignificant period, our species has become the most dominant super-species, overtaking the entire globe by defining it by our activities. From small colonies along river valleys, our species progressed at breakneck speed, evolving into the new type of species we have become today: urban sapiens. With 7.4 billion humans living in cities, we are completely cut off from our natural habitat. During our relentless journey toward global domination, we have managed to force 2 to 3 million other species to change their livelihoods to adapt to our new habitat. However, not all species in the plant and animal kingdom have been able to cope with this drastic change and are slowly disappearing over time. Entire ecosystems are collapsing with this mass conversion, forests to farms, farms to suburban extensions of crowded cities, turning the biosphere into barren lands with piles of concrete dominating a once bio-rich habitat. Today, humanity laments the maddening loss of these natural systems, but as an urban species adapted to its new habitat of concrete jungles and modern technology, it finds it almost impossible to reverse this surge in global urbanization , leaving behind the question of what will happen to unsuitable natural ecosystems? Can we let them die in silence? Their death will give rise to another, more hostile natural system, with barren lands and inedible invasive species that are their answer to our grand design. The emergence of these new systems has awakened our species to take a stand to protect the dying ecosystems that have supported our survival, giving rise to environmental awareness movements from governing bodies. Conservation of existing forest cover and preservation of intact ecosystems was the first step taken. Protective laws were passed against encroachment on these reserves. However, these solutions maintained the gap between nature and humans by widening the gap between cities and forests. Humanity had to give nature a chance to reclaim its lost territory. The solution was to bring nature back into urban spaces while allowing humanity to readjust to it. In the late 1970s, these issues gave importance to the field of landscape architecture because it had the necessary tool to integrate the demands of urban spaces with the necessity of natural ecosystems. The earlier perspective of landscapes as a mere foreground for houses, palaces and monuments seemed to be transforming into a new idea: landscape architecture, in concert with disciplines such as ecology and environmental science. environment, became responsible for the design of..