Slash and burn

1. Introduction Climate change is a crucial issue of our era (Annan, 2007) and is expected to have serious environmental, economic, and social impacts on resource limited countries such as Cameroon. In particular, small-scale farmers depending on available natural resources as well as on traditional farm practices are more affected. Like elsewhere, local farmers' perceptions of climate change and their strategies to mitigate its impacts are based on indigenous knowledge and their own…

Humanity’s desire for power and control was the driving force behind the European colonial period beginning in the 16th century. The Tempest, written by William Shakespeare in 1610, portrays the social issues and insecurities that were caused due to the new-found colonialism. In the second scene of Act 2, the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized festers, consequently leading to discord. Shakespeare uses variations of literary devices, figurative language, diction, and combating…

In Haiti, the government has not designed nor designated an entity to create a wastewater or public sewage system in their country. It many areas throughout the country, the citizens are forced to bathe in rivers and streams contaminated with human and animal waste. Additionally, many farmers are forced to collect water from common-source areas, which are shared by all of their neighbors. This limits the water that is available for their crops. Lastly, because of the deforested areas, there…

On July 16, 1918, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and his five children, along with his loyal servants, descended downstairs and gathered together for a family photo shoot. However, the family photoshoot turned out to be a deceptive trick created by a communist leader, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik troops to lure the royal Russian family, the Romanovs, out of hiding and to end Russia’s monarchical rule. Once the Romanovs and their servants made themselves known…

The Maya were an advanced civilization that existed in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, northern Honduras, and El Salvador. They were positioned in one geographic area covering the Yucatan Peninsula; this smart choice of area indicated that the Maya were aware and looked to remained somewhat protected from invasion by other Mesoamerican groups that could come in from northern areas. Unlike some other indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were not one united empire, but…

Today, billions of people share this earth and have built up civilization to reach its full potential. The people have made use of the land to build major cities, highways, farming, malls, corporation, etc. Humans are craving to maximize and capitalize on what the land as to offer meanwhile; with great success there is also great loss. This land, before the modern era, was flourished with countless amounts of full, healthy forests and the species that lived throughout the years. Yet, the…

earths rainwater. With all the important things rainforests do for the earth, why are people destroying them at an alarming rate? Cattle ranching is the main reason for deforestation due to the farming techniques used. Locals use a technique called slash and burn which accounts for fifty percent of all lost rainforests. On a small scale this technique does not cause much harm, but with the increased need for cattle meat in counties like China, Russia, and North America, farming is being…

This woman was limping down the stairs. Her left forearm hung from her upper arm by a thin piece of muscle and her clothes were in shreds, burns everywhere, a chunk of her hair was gone. I think I thought something like ‘Shit, a containment leak. We’re all gonna be sucked out into space and die.’ No-one came after her. No-one stepped forward. More people started staring at her until some humans…

The Journey to Populating the Earth Hominid began to populate the earth millions of years ago, from Africa and eventually spread out to all of the continents on Earth. The journey took millennium through errors and trials of survival and social organizations. Through Homo sapiens’ excellent adaptation, cognitive revolution and complex social organization, we were able to spread out as much and as fast as we did and dominated the entire planet. The harnessing of fire played an extremely…

forest and had just started setting some of the cuttings on fire...these people were battling against the dandelions with such a vengeance, it seemed they wanted a good harvest. Nobody seemed to be able to knock sense in their rustic heads that slash-and-burn agriculture was destroying the environment. Ah! Now I remember, this was the exact same piece of land where the bastards had buried my previous body nearly half a year ago. As far as I can recollect, I had been playing with my lighter...on,…