5 ms·
The meaning to you or the meaning to the ancient? If the latter, I'm not sure if people back then were so megalomaniac to consider being useful to humans as an
by qb45 11y ago
The meaning to you or the meaning to the ancient?
If the latter, I'm not sure if people back then were so megalomaniac to consider being useful to humans as an advantage. The world was much less developed before steam engines gave us craploads of energy for free.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y agoI'm pretty sure that people back then were rather clear on the idea that if something you put in the ground makes food and seeds you're gonna want to keep the seeds to make more.
- qb45 11y agoBut then you become a slave of those pesky humans and their whims, while trees grow freely in forests where they didn't face much danger from humans before the industrial revolution.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y agoThere's a fun little Roman bedtime story about a determined man who cuts down an important god's favorite forest for firewood and is cursed with insatiable hunger that eventually drives him to sell all of his possessions and even his daughter into slavery before he eats himself to death. Needless to say, people were a threat to forests long before industrialization.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ajuc 11y agoActually in Europe there was heavy deforestation between 1100 and 1500 already.
- qb45 11y agoYeah, I was looking for information on pre-industrial deforestation and found that too. Apparently, deforestation was also a problem in the vicinity of some ancient cities.