Environmental+Issues

=Maya and the Environment=

= Past: =

The Mayans worked with their natural environment in order to cultivate the land most effectively. (See Environment). They used their knowledge of the surrounding land, animals and plants to benefit from their tropical rainforest environment. Many people question how the Maya were capable of sustaining such large populations in such an area during the Classic period. With a unique balance of water and land management, their efforts proved to be successful. (B eckman 2009)

The Mayan empire was said to have fallen in the late Classic period. This collapse was in part due to the local environment. Anthropologists hypothesize that there may have been an environmental disaster, epidemic disease, and climate change. Many agree that the Maya reached their environment’s carrying capacity, and the surrounding area was no longer able to support such a large population. ( [])

“‘They did it to themselves,’ says veteran archeologist Tom Sever. ‘The Maya are often depicted as people who lived in complete harmony with their environment,' says PhD student Robert Griffin. ‘But like many other cultures before and after them, they ended up deforesting and destroying their landscape in efforts to eke out a living in hard times’” (Coulter 2009).

By the time colonialism made its way to the Americas, Maya proper had already disbanded and the empire was slowly taken over in the next 170 years. (See Politics and Colonialism)

Present:


Today, the Maya suffer from the same problem: deforestation. With the invention and increase of modern technology, they are able to cut down more trees faster with bulldozers, flat bed semi trailers, and processing plants. According to one assessment, "In 1960, woodlands blanketed nearly 60 percent of Central America. Today less than one-third of the original forests remain standing; the rest have vanished" (Faber 1993).

Agriculture is the main reason for deforestation. Poor families cut down trees in order to have farmland. Corporate businesses use the best land for crops and cattle. The cattle industry does little for the Maya, but makes lots of money for the few people who own the land (Schlesinger 2011).

Available land is typically high up on hillsides where the forest must be cut down and burned to convert to workable land. This causes two problems, the release of CO2 into the atmosphere from burning the wood fuel and the loss of trees that would ordinarily take in the CO2 during respiration (Schlesinger 2011).

A common characteristic of tropical forests are their nutrient poor soils, which are unable to support long term farming. Rain washes the nutrients out of the soil. Water also washes away the excess pesticides causing problems for the coral reef’s. Muddy water also clouds the water and reduces the amount of photosynthesis that can be done by the coral plants (Schlesinger 2011).

The coastal waters are threatened by municipal waste contamination, overfishing of conch, finfish, and lobster, and oil tankers carrying more than one million tons of crude oil. Coastal habitats are also destroyed by the development of tourism and other ventures. Oil drilling in tropical forests is also of major concern for the area (Schlesinger 2011).

The current environmental issues that threaten the Maya are similar to those they experienced in the late Classic period, just another example of how history repeats itself.

Future:
The Maya have several groups working to better their surrounding environment. A popular and successful group is Mayan Hope. **Mayan Hope is currently working to develop several projects ** to help in the preservation of the environment and the betterment of the communities here in the Guatemalan highlands.

Examples of projects they are currently working on:

Paper Firebricks:
 * 1) It recycles the used paper products and reduces the landfill burden.
 * 2) It can provide a few jobs for those needing work.
 * 3) Paper bricks are a cleaner fuel source than firewood reducing smoke and toxins.
 * 4) It puts us in a position of working with the city and reducing the trash collection problem. In the future we would also hope to be able to begin a process of trash separation and the bundling of other things like glass and plastic for re-sale to commercial recycling operations.



Solar Ovens:

The solar oven is a very simple device, just an insulated box lined with foil or reflective material with a glass or plastic top. It works by using the greenhouse effect with sunlight entering through the glass and being absorbed and reflected by the foil-covered walls as infrared radiation or heat. The glass or plastic blocks the infrared, so the heat stays in the box, where it cooks food slowly but steadily much like a crock pot. The box itself can be produced from metal, plywood or even cardboard and are relatively inexpensive to produce.

“We propose to do is develop women's groups and training sessions with community members to teach others how to make and use the ovens. This is primarily an educational process but, we feel that with this approach, one that will spread successfully throughout the community. ”

Composting Toilets:

An idea in the making.

(McFarland 2011)

Citation: Beckman, Wendy. "Interaction Between the Ancient Maya of Tikal and Their Local Environment."//University of Cincinnati//. 20 July 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .

Coulter, Dauna. "The Fall of the Maya: 'They Did It to Themselves'" //PhysOrg.com - Science News, Technology, Physics, Nanotechnology, Space Science, Earth Science, Medicine//. NASA, 7 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .

Faber, D. (1993). Environment under ﬁre: Imperialism and the ecological crisis in Central America. New York: Monthly Review

"Maya Civilization." // Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia //. 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .

McFarland, Megan. "Understanding of Mayan Culture Based on Environment, Page 2 of 4."//Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com//. Mayan Hope, 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .

Schlesinger, Victoria. "Mundo Maya Environment/Planeta.com." // Planeta.com: Global Journal of Practical Ecotourism //. 23 Apr. 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .