Big Idea 3: Life—including human life—influences and is influenced by the environment

Across its four-billion-year history, the course of life’s evolution has been intimately tied to the Earth’s physical environment. Global cooling led to the relatively recent spread of grasslands, which then triggered an evolutionary shift in many herbivorous mammals from browsing to grazing. Conversely, the evolution of life has altered the physical environment. Photosynthetic bacteria released free oxygen into the early oceans and atmosphere, making Earth habitable for later types of organisms. Humans, with their increasing population and expanding technology, have altered the landscape and the distribution of flora and fauna, and they are changing atmospheric chemistry in ways that affect the climate. Earth system processes also influence where and how humans live. For example:

With human populations increasing the world over, the emission of greenhouse gases has also increased dramatically. These gases alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere and directly influence the planet’s climate. It is generally agreed that the rapid and immense pouring of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will lead to global warming, which will have incredible impacts throughout the world.

Around three million years ago, a land bridge formed between North and South America. For the first time in more than 150 million years, the two continents were linked, and the mammals inhabiting both lands migrated across the bridge. Horses, mastodons, cats, and dogs moved south, while opossums, porcupines, ground sloths, and armadillos moved north (to name a few). Today, half the mammal species in South America are descended from North American migrants.

The Great Plains and Central Lowland regions, which make up the eastern portion of the Northwest Central, support extensive ranching and agriculture. The overwhelming majority of these regions are either under cultivation, used for grazing livestock, or developed for residential and commercial use. When we ask, “Why does this place look the way it does?” the role of humans must be central to our answer.