sustain abili-dit Words by Karim Hassan
It is no secret that since the first industrial revolution, and the subsequent idle hopes of perpetual growth, that Earth is on its last legs, and it begs the question of how we got to such a terrible position, and what can we do to prevent our imminent demise. Well, as it turns out, history does repeat itself. Studying what ancient civilizations did right, what others did wrong, and what solutions were done back then, could provide us with a good backbone of what to do next. Some early civilizations, such as the Native Americans and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples focused their time and efforts towards living harmoniously with their surrounding environment with which they felt a spiritual and hereditary connection to (Venorio, 2020) (Indigenous Australians and the Environment, 2022). This is one of the reasons that these cultures were less technologically advanced than their European and Asian counterparts. A prominent notion among the native Americans was self-restraint, as overconsumption in a constantly changing environment was bound to lead to struggle in future generations (Venorio, 2020). The Wampanoag practiced organic farming and understood that plants, like animals, required sustenance and acted accordingly, enriching the land instead of depleting it of natural resources (Venorio, 2020). Many of these cultures also understood that their actions have environmental impacts and therefore worked to have a symbiotic relationship with nature, rather than a parasitic one, granting them the nickname 18
of the ‘first environmentalists’ as they treated nature with respect which has since been discarded by colonials (Venorio, 2020). Much like most ancient civilizations, the sheltering system for Native Americans required minimal space and was achievable without any drastic changes to the environment (Venorio, 2020) (Rethinking The Future, 2022). Apart from foreign invasion, the downfall of the Mayan Empire was caused when the need for human sacrifices increased more than the population can maintain (Apocalypto, 2006). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, like the Native Americans, also saw the significance in nature yet believed it to be a part of them, and thus felt responsible to maintain their community through sustainable living (Indigenous Australians and the Environment, 2022). They only hunted what was necessary and left no part of the animal to waste as they were very rich in nutrients. Medicine was also gathered purely from natural resources gaining the nickname ‘bush medicine’ (Indigenous Australians and the Environment, 2022). Since the invasion of the colonials, and their poorly integrated farming systems, it’s been left to the owners of the land to reduce the salinity of the soil using their traditional methods such as fire management which the colonisers have since adopted (Gilles, 2017). These methods of land maintenance which were claimed by the aforementioned colonisers have faded over time (Gilles, 2017). Other civilizations and empires had sustainability and nature preservation