What is the Environment?
Thus in mankind's relationship to the environment three types of human society can be distinguished. They exist in both historic and contemporary spatial terms.
3.9.1 NATURAL SOCIETY
Where mankind's habitat demands are in a stable balance with the Ecosystem in which they live. Pre-agricultural hunter/gatherer societies are examples. It is unlikely that any truly natural populations of mankind are left on earth.
3.9.2 VIABLE SOCIETY
This is where mankind's activities maintain an Ecosystem that remains viable despite a modification of it. Such Ecosystems are able to withstand shocks such as drought. Settled hunting and farming societies where productivity is maintained are precarious examples, threatened by modern societies around them.
3.9.3 MODERN SOCIETY
Where Ecosystems are either degrading towards non-viability or are already non-viable as a result of mankind's presence. Most modern human societies are in this category. In fact so pervasive is modern society on the earth today that there are signs that the Biosphere is becoming a non-viable environment not only for humans themselves but for most other species as well.
Thus the key to human society's future on the planet is to manage ecosystems both locally and globally (the Biosphere) so as to ensure ecological viability. That is, to ensure that ecosystems continue to supply the natural renewable resources which we and our successors need. For the more developed societies this means both reducing consumption and taking responsibility for the international implications of present and future consumption patterns: for the less developed societies it means learning from the mistakes of more developed countries. For all societies, as the Rio Earth Summit stressed, international cooperation is required as never before in mankind's history.
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