GEOL10050 Earth and Humanity

Academic Year 2023/2024

This open elective module considers how geological agents have shaped the pattern of human evolution, the development of agricultural and early industrial civilisations, and impact on the general health of these and today's societies. The lectures are supplemented by a comprehensive on-line learning resource. The first part investigates how environmental conditions (e.g. fluctuating climatic conditions, natural resource availability, geohazards and catastrophic natural events) influenced the evolution, migration and settlement patterns of hominid and early-modern human populations in the recent geological past. The second part of the module examines how, over the past ten thousand years, geology has influenced the development of agriculture, cities and an increasingly sophisticated use of metals, water and other earth resources up to the Industrial Revolution. The increasing effect of humans on the environment over time will be explored, including examples of civilisations ended by their own environmental impact; the collapse of civilisations as the result of external geological forces is also considered. The third part of the module focuses on how geological and related environmental factors continue to exert strong effects on the health and wellbeing of billions of people in the 21st century. Medical Geology, an emerging discipline in environmental and human health, is introduced. Case studies will be used to illustrate the beneficial and harmful effects of metals, metalloids and mineral dust on human health and their links with geological environments. The module complements GEOL10040, in which the current and future impact of humans on the global system is considered.