As the world has evolved, so have those whom inhabit it. The environment directly affects living organisms and species’ way of life. Living organisms and species’ way of life and habits, in turn, also have a direct effect on the environment. In tandem, these factors, specifically the environment, the human race, and animals, can work wonders; however, if one oversteps their boundaries, negative consequences can potentially result for all three.

With time, humans have learned to try to adapt in ways that complement other factors. This being a learning experience, humans have not always known what specific risks they may or may not have been taking. With the growth of the human race on Earth also came the growth of microbial organisms and other disease-causing substances that have contributed greatly to the health and well-being of both humans and animals.

In man’s first years, we lived as hunter-gatherers, constantly on the move. Because of this, no real “plague” could form because people were spread out and always traveling from location to location. When people caught diseases, the diseases couldn’t spread too far outward because of isolation of populations, and thus died along with the individuals it took out.

The appearance of plagues can be attributed to peoples’ decision to settle down in towns, villages, and population. Some main factors that contributed to explosion of plagues include the denser, increase in population that was supported by settling down, domestication of animals, the making of tools, and agriculture. Crowd diseases or plagues such as TB, malaria, cholera, influenza, and small pox spread quickly throughout the newly-denser population, particularly from such close contact with animals. About 75% of emerging diseases are zoonotic (class notes). Clearing of forests, killing off keystone species, and killing off game species also have tremendous affects on environments, providing water pockets perfect for breeding of disease (e.g. mosquitoes in small water pockets). These problems are still prevalent today; however, because we are more advanced in technology for health and medicine and aware of causes and symptoms, the disease’s casualties are not nearly as significant as they have been throughout history.

Globalization served as a perfect breeding ground for microbes. As we move around, we also are carrying germs and diseases with us. By traveling from one side of the globe to the other via plane, these germs can cause world-wide risks in a matter of hours. Globalization lead to the spread of, as well as exposure to, many infectious diseases worldwide. Another risk factor to infectious diseases is climate change, by damaging ecosystems or affecting microbial organisms and bacteria. The dispersion of carriers or change of demographics of specific infectious diseases can have dramatic affects on populations not accustomed to exposure to certain organisms or germs.

Help received: PowerPoint “The Price of Being Sedentary,” class notes; globalization/climate change/ human health homework/ reference page