Impact of Geography on Adaptation for the Future Sustainability of Human Society on Earth

Abstract

Over time, societies have continued to thrive but with diverse arguments relating to the pathways for survival and whether the geography-adaptation thinking provides any lessons to engage the contemporary world in order to gain a better option for human existence. This paper explored the adaptation and survival of societies from the perspective of the corresponding interdependences between humans and the environment. It also examined how successful adaptations in the past could inform future trajectories of human societies on the Earth. The paper adopted content analysis to review adaptation as a discipline of Geography by also examining adaptation from the perspective of the future sustainability of human society on Earth. In the content analysis, both quantitatively and qualitatively approaches were used to systematically analyze written, verbal or visual documentation to provide a better understanding of how geography has informed adaptation of human societies from diverse spatial and temporal frames. The paper identified that adaptations in human-environment systems worldwide, have been influenced by environmental degradation, climate change, relationships with friendly and hostile societies, and especially, the willingness and ability of societies to recognize the need for social change and resource consumption. Also, successful adaptations of past societies have been influenced largely, by the commitment of societies to solve environmental problems, application of positive culture-oriented to the protection of the environment, use of environment-friendly technologies, and access to resources. In sustaining future societies, however, human societies must commit to addressing local and global environmental changes from a mix of experiences from both past and present societies.