Human Ecology and Environment
To the best of our knowledge, no other species in Earth's history has increased its geographic range and its population size as explosively as humans have in a mere 100,000 years or so. We have done this by inventing new culture- and technology-based ways of life that allow us to capture ever larger fractions of the globe's total biological productivity. As a consequence, our activities now profoundly affect all of the planet's ecosystems, and even its climate. Courses in this area examine how we became so successful, and how our emergence as a dominant force has modified a very wide range of ecological processes and evolutionary trajectories.