AncientPages.com – Right this moment the perilous state of the atmosphere is usually within the information. Many tales describe how Earth is being broken by human beings and talk about methods to stop this.
These issues should not new. Millennia in the past, individuals in historical Greece and Rome already knew people had been damaging the pure world. Literature from these historical instances incorporates many references to the atmosphere and the harms it suffers.
Many of those insights ring true in the present day. Polluting the soil we farm, air we breathe and water we drink has clear repercussions. We will solely degrade the atmosphere for thus lengthy earlier than it would come again to hang-out us.
So let’s discover what the traditional Greeks and Romans can train us about nature and our place on the earth.
A nineteenth century imaginary portrait of Pliny the Elder. Artist unknown. Wikimedia Commons
An agent of destruction
The traditional Roman author Pliny the Elder, who lived within the first century AD, was involved about the way in which human beings had been abusing Earth. In his work titled Pure Historical past, he wrote:
We taint the rivers and the weather of nature, and the air itself, which is the principle help of life, we flip right into a medium for the destruction of life.
He considered the planet as one thing humanity ought to guard relatively than hurt, as a result of we owe our existence to mom Earth:
It’s my nice responsibility to start with to champion Earth’s trigger and to help her because the dad or mum of all issues.
Two millennia later, Pliny’s phrases appear straight related to us.
Within the trendy world, issues in regards to the well being of the atmosphere have turn out to be one of many hottest political matters.
For instance, a survey final yr of virtually 20,000 younger individuals in Australia confirmed 44% assume the atmosphere is a very powerful challenge of our time.
A rising understanding
Roman writers famous their troopers finally poisoned the water and the air round their camps. The army author Flavius Renatus Vegetius, who lived across the fourth and fifth centuries AD, noticed:
if a quite a few military continues lengthy in a single place in the summertime or within the autumn, the waters turn out to be corrupt, and the air contaminated, from whence proceed malignant and deadly distempers, which nothing however frequent change of encampments can forestall.
Roman writers additionally had quite a bit to say in regards to the air pollution of the river Tiber, which runs by Rome.
The biographer Suetonius, who was born round 70AD, tells us the river had been “full of garbage and narrowed by jutting buildings” earlier than emperor Augustus (63BC-14AD) took motion to scrub it up.
Dangerous insurance policies had polluted the river’s waters. For instance, the emperor Nero (37–68AD) dumped enormous quantities of rotten grain into the river.
The Roman poet Juvenal (of the primary and second centuries AD) referred to the Tiber as a “gushing sewer”. And the doctor Galen (129–216AD) stated the Tiber was so polluted that fish caught there weren’t fit for human consumption.
Measures to guard the atmosphere
The Greeks and Romans launched varied measures to stop or cut back environmental hurt.
In 420BC, for instance, the Athenians launched a legislation to guard the river Ilissus:
It’s forbidden to soak the coats [of animals] within the Ilissus above the sanctuary of Heracles and to tan them. It’s forbidden to throw the residue of the laundering into the river.
Fashionable researchers assume this measure may need helped the Ilissus keep clear. That’s as a result of authors writing within the fourth century BC (after the legislation was launched) describe the Ilissus as a pure and exquisite river.
The Ilissus river was an image of well being within the nineteenth century. Edward Dodwell, Wikimedia Commons
Different measures to scale back air pollution included banning public defecation and urination. Bans on washing garments or throwing garbage into rivers had been additionally frequent. But it surely’s unlikely the general public adhered to those restrictions on a regular basis.
Some rulers additionally tried to do public works resembling constructing sewers and aqueducts to scrub up air pollution.
For instance, the emperor Nerva, who dominated 96–98AD, undertook a collection of building initiatives to make Rome cleaner and more healthy.
Sextus Julius Frontinus (35–103AD), supervisor of Rome’s aqueducts, tells us that because of Nerva:
the looks of the town is clear and altered; the air is purer; and the causes of the unwholesome ambiance, which gave the air of the town so dangerous a reputation in former instances, are actually eliminated.
Damaging the atmosphere harms our well being
Someday within the late first or early second century AD, the Roman aristocrat and lawyer Pliny the Youthful (61/62–112AD) wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan, who dominated 98–117AD. He complained a few public well being challenge within the metropolis of Amastris, in trendy Turkey:
Among the many chief options of Amastris, Sir, is an extended avenue of nice magnificence. All through the size of this, nevertheless, there runs what is known as a stream, however is in truth a dirty sewer, a disgusting eyesore which provides off a noxious stench. The well being and look alike of the town will profit whether it is coated in, and together with your permission this shall be achieved.
The emperor replied that he was completely happy for this to be achieved:
There’s each cause, my expensive Pliny, to cowl the water which you say flows by the town of Amastris, if it’s a hazard to well being whereas it stays uncovered.
This story exhibits the ancients had been conscious that the well being of the land, air and water is intertwined with human well being. So when the atmosphere is in an unhealthy state, that is additionally damaging for our well being and wellbeing.
The trendy world can study from antiquity
The message from the traditional Greeks and Romans is as true in the present day for us because it was for them. As humanity grapples with a number of environmental crises, it’s price reflecting on this age-old information.
The underside line is, holding the planet in a wholesome state is nice not only for the atmosphere, but in addition for ourselves.
In a contemporary world the place tales about air pollution and associated environmental issues incessantly seem within the information, this message of the ancients is nicely price remembering.
