1864 book about climate change and environmental destruction

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George Perkins Marsh was a U.S. ambassador, and therefore well-traveled, and was able to see the way civilization impacted the environment in places like Rome, the Middle East, Egypt, etc., although he also noticed how the environment was being changed in Vermont during his own lifetime.

He was also a congressman and his book appeared in 1864.

The below article also talks a bit about other Americans that have written about the environment in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Congressman Who Warned Us About Climate Change in 1864

I was thinking of Thoreau as well, which the article doesn't mention, although I don't think Thoreau ever held public office.
 
So began Man and Nature, the Vermont congressman and U.S. ambassador’s in-depth summation of man-made climate change, a book that laid out in simple terms how man changed the world for the worse and how that change was going to bury us in dust. A bestseller, it was hailed as a sea-change when it first hit shelves in 1864.

Yeah, you read that right: 1864, 154 years ago. Why hasn’t America listened?

Because people need to eat, live and work.
We can't all just sit on a rock and admire the untouched nature in
our backyard and still manage to feed our families.
 
“The bubbling brook, the trees, the flowers, the wild animals were to me persons, not things ..."

Res ipsa loquitur.
 
1864 and he noticed it in his lifetime??!!!!???
no he didn't

Yes he did. NYC and Chicago needed a lot of empty lots for manure and dead horses long before the civil war. London had numerous cholera and other water borne rpidemics due to the factory system causing overcrowding, the lack of low cost potable water and poor sewerage treatment.
 
1864 and he noticed it in his lifetime??!!!!???
no he didn't

Yes he did. NYC and Chicago needed a lot of empty lots for manure and dead horses long before the civil war. London had numerous cholera and other water borne rpidemics due to the factory system causing overcrowding, the lack of low cost potable water and poor sewerage treatment.
London also had very bad air in winter and whenever it was cold because of the coal.
 
1864 and he noticed it in his lifetime??!!!!???
no he didn't

Yes he did. NYC and Chicago needed a lot of empty lots for manure and dead horses long before the civil war. London had numerous cholera and other water borne rpidemics due to the factory system causing overcrowding, the lack of low cost potable water and poor sewerage treatment.
what does this have to do with the environment changing??!!
 
he could not have known anything about climate change in 1864

I found it on google search, it doesn't actually do what the lying article claims, it doesn't even talk about climate at all, it was about the Stewardship of the Earth:

From WIKIPEDIA,

Man and Nature

"Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, first published in 1864, was written by American polymath scholar and diplomat George Perkins Marsh[1]. Marsh intended it to show that “whereas [others] think the earth made man, man in fact made the earth”.[2] As a result, he warned that man could destroy himself and the Earth if we don’t restore and sustain global resources and raise awareness about our actions. It is one of the first works to document the effects of human action on the environment and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement.

Marsh is remembered by scholars as a profound and observant student of men, books and nature with a wide range of interests ranging from history to poetry and literature. His wide array of knowledge and great natural powers of mind gave him the ability to speak and write about every topic of inquire with the assertive authority of a genuine investigator. He initially got the idea for “man and Nature” from his observations in his New England home and his foreign travels devoted to similar inquiries.[3] Marsh wrote the book in line with the view that human life and action is a transformative phenomenon, especially in relation to nature, and due to personal economic interests. He felt that men were too quick to lessen their sense of responsibility and he was “unwilling to leave the world worse than he found it”.[4]

The book challenges the myth of the inexhaustibility of the earth and the belief that human impact on the environment is negligible by drawing similarities to the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean.[5] Marsh argued that ancient Mediterranean civilizations collapsed through environmental degradation. Deforestation led to eroded soils that led to decreased soil productivity. Additionally, the same trends could be found occurring in the United States. The book was one of the most influential books of its time, next to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, inspiring conservation and reform in the USA since it forebode what happened to an ancient civilisation when it depleted and exhausted its natural resources.[6] The book was instrumental in the creation of Adirondack Park in New York and the United States National Forest. Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the United States Forest Service, called it "epoch making" and Stewart Udall wrote that it was "the beginning of land wisdom in this country."

LINK

It does appear to be an useful work in its day.
 
it would be like man trying to comprehend the beginning of the universe--he had no idea of man's ability
..even so, man is not changing the earth--the earth is too big
 
it would be like man trying to comprehend the beginning of the universe--he had no idea of man's ability
..even so, man is not changing the earth--the earth is too big
I'm quite sure people in the 19th century were able to comprehend erosion, flooding and desertification, although you probably still think the earth is flat.
 
it would be like man trying to comprehend the beginning of the universe--he had no idea of man's ability
..even so, man is not changing the earth--the earth is too big
I'm quite sure people in the 19th century were able to comprehend erosion, flooding and desertification, although you probably still think the earth is flat.
that is a great analogy/makes sense :rolleyes-41:
 
1864 and he noticed it in his lifetime??!!!!???
no he didn't

How could we know since no one read his UNLINKED book.
What do you mean "UNlinked Book"?
You are confusing his Legitimate citation with your ILLEGITIMATE ones.

The book and Author are named in the OP, and it is Excerpted by the LINK He did provide.
Perfectly fine post.
Your nonsensical objection apparently a projection of the legitimate one I had with your actual Unlinked posts immediately preceding in another string.
Off the charts goofy.
`
 
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it would be like man trying to comprehend the beginning of the universe--he had no idea of man's ability
..even so, man is not changing the earth--the earth is too big
I'm quite sure people in the 19th century were able to comprehend erosion, flooding and desertification, although you probably still think the earth is flat.

Not really there was little research going on in those areas in 1864.
 

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