Oceans make up more than 70 percent of the world’s surface and 99 percent of the habitat on this planet.
On Wednesday, University anthropology professor Jon Erlandson discussed the importance of sustaining the oceans’ ecosystem before a crowd of about 20 at the Many Nations Longhouse.
The presentation, titled “Fishing the Past to Feed the Future: Archaeology, Historical Ecology, and Restoration of Marine Ecosystems,” was part of the series of lectures called “Fireside Conversations on Global Warming” presented by the University’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program and Environmental Studies program.
This particular lecture concentrated on maintaining marine ecosystems by analyzing past cultures.
“Archaeology and history are very important,” Erlandson said after the speech. “They can teach us many things because people have had to deal with the same problems that we deal with today.”
The idea behind the “Fireside Conversations” is to bring a broader sense to the global warming problem that society faces today, bringing in University professors of many backgrounds.
“I enjoyed this speech a lot, as it was different than the other that I have attended,” said University student Daniel Soulé. “It was interesting to see a speech that you don’t often hear in the mainstream media.”
Drawing from some of his own experiments and case studies, Erlandson said people can look at the way past cultures dealt with preservation problems in examining how people today try to combat global warming and depletion of resources.
“Oceans were once thought to be inexhaustible,” Erlandson said. “This is obviously not true. Most of the world’s populations lives in coastal zones and have exploited them incessantly, using them as a dumping ground for garbage.”
During the hour-long speech, Erlandson pointed out that many anthropologists suggest that oceans have been used as a resource for only around 10,000 years, but this is not the case, he said.
“People often think that pre-European settlements were benign and that everybody was one with the earth,” said University graduate student Meghan Murphy, one of the event’s co-organizers. “It was interesting to hear that these people did have an impact.”
Erlandson explained that this is a time of high sea levels and that over the years, coastal erosion has destroyed evidence of early coastal fishing and production, leaving plenty of places unexplored and questions unanswered.
But with some of his own studies, specifically regarding the Cumash tribe and the Channel Islands in California, he examined how these past cultures can be a window into how people today can view and fix the current problems with ocean sustainability.
“The Cumash are examples of very early habitants having an impact on the earth, but managing to figure out a way to sustainability,” Erlandson said. “I think the notion that there wasn’t conservation before the industrial revolution era is a bunch of crap.”
The argument that past cultures did have preservation techniques in mind shows that not only did people of the distant past have problems similar to those the earth faces today, but succeeded in battling them.
“It was interesting to hear how we can look at the past and the problems today with global warming and the demise of fisheries in the same way,” said University student Hillary Renick. “The Cumash Indians were forced to live in a sustainable way. So, it is up to all of us to make a positive change.”
Erlandson concluded the lecture in a state of optimism with thoughts on what can be done to help the struggling marine ecosystem thrive.
“We’re not going to get rid of world globalization or commercial fishing,” Erlandson said at the end. “But what we can do is control it.”
The “Fireside Conversations on Global Warming” will continue until early April. The next event is scheduled for Feb. 27, when law professor Rob Illig will lecture.