Hello, ladies and gentleman. Today, I'm going to deal with the relationship between human and nature. Relationship between human and nature......actually it is a quite tough concept to objectify. However, humans have been agonizing throughout the history and made some theories. Today, I would like to share two perspectives, which are environmental determinism, and environmental possibilism. Neither did I know these concepts so while writing this article, I learned a lot.

 

Picture below would help you understand more easily.

Basically, Environmental Determinism and Environmental Possibilism is opposing theory.

 

     First, let's discuss environmental determinism. To simply put, this theory claims that physical environment determines human culture and development. The climate, geography, and other environments influences the outlook of inhabitants there. Friedrich Ratzel first established this theory and was further developed by Ellsworth Huntington around early 20^th century. However, during 1920-40s many geographers disputed this theory and came up with Environmental Possibilism, which led to its decline.

[Friedrich Ratzel]

     So let's look at some examples and supporting this theory. For example, island regions can have distinct cultures since they are apart from continents. Moreover, since regions with warm climate can make agriculture prosper, people residing those regions would be more likely to be lazy.

[Indigenous people living in pole wear furry clothes due to its low temperature]

 

     So, the response of the environmental determinism is environmental possibilism. Then, what is environmental possibilism? This theory states that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions. It was proposed by the French geographer, Vidal de la Blache. It insists that humans are resilient and can overcome.

[Vidal de la Blache]

      Let's look at some examples concerned with this concept. For instance, making a road in forest can be an attempt to overcome its environment. Moreover, connecting electricity to the desert can be an example too.

 

 

     Personally, I support environmental determinism since even though we overcome environment, it is just a few percentage. The nature is strong and so big that we cannot actually change the, The viewpoint of the connection between human and nature can be diverse. However, the thing is that we should try harder to have sustainable development. It is wise that we overcome the environment, but it should not exceed the line and harm the environment.