Introduction

In this blog I will be looking at the effect domestication of agriculture has had on global climate.  I am going to look at whether these effects are a recent occurrence or whether in the past our ancestors also impacted on climate.  Domestication of agriculture began after the last ice age due to a warmer climate and a growing population size.  Wild grains were cultivated by humans on a regular basis and herd animals such as goats began to be domesticated.  This saw a transition from hunter-gather societies, to those more similar to farming today.  

It has been suggested that societal change from hunter-gatherers to a more modern style of farming using domesticated livestock and crops led to change of the global climate which prevented the onset of another ice age.  I am going to discuss this debate in my forth coming posts, determining whether this hypothesis is plausible or whether it is more likely that humans have not influenced global climate significantly until the more recent intensification we have seen over the last century to support our growing population.  

I am then going to discuss the ways in which domestication has influenced climate, such as through land use change, and how this has affected concentrations of greenhouse gases.  Here I will look at the impacts stemming from the more recent intensification of agriculture, and following on from this, the possible solutions and strategies to reduce the impact on global climate.  

these pictures show the progression from hunter-gatherer societies to early domestication to modern day agriculture.