Technologies for Adaptation to Climate Change
Annotated Bibliography
The rationale for this research paper is to justify that the existence of human beings in the past was greatly influenced by behavioral modernity and climatic adaptability in a bid to survive in different climate regimes.
Gilligan, I. (2007). Neanderthal extinction and modern human behavior: the role of climate
change and clothing. World Archaeology, 39(4), 499-514.
Gilligan’s argument is based on the view that thermal variations are the best way to resolve the challenging question of how the Neanderthals became extinct amidst evolutionary behavioral modernity. He further expounds that due regards should be endorsed on pre-adaptation traits, including simple or complex technologies, which led to manufacturing modernized and elaborate clothing that enabled them to live and survive in the cold. Other thermal adaptations the human species embraced were the greater control of fire, sophisticated artificial shelters, specialized hunting, greater residential sedentariness, increased pigment, archeological signs of symbolism, and personal adornments. The author uses evidence from fundamentally outlined patterns and the available data.
Evidently, the Neanderthal regime became extinct not from the inability to adapt to climate change but because of the competition from the more modernized behaviorism. Despite the fact that there is inadequate evidence that the modernized man was more superior to the Neanderthal man, the author relates human thermo-physiological response to varying thermal condition even in the past regimes. The author further introduces data distinguishing between the simple and complex clothes according to their structures, level of protection, technology used, and repercussions. Moreover, he uses schematic graphs to show the varying temperatures and wind chills. Therefore, this article will serve as significant evidence that basis its facts on fundamental changing patterns rather than data alone and will assist in developing the subject matter for my research. Finally, Gilligan’s research has managed to justify that modernized behavioral changes were not purported by cognitive changes but the human need to adapt to changing environmental conditions that propagated modernization.
Stalker, P. (2006). Technologies for Adaptation to Climate Change. UNFCCC): Bonn, Germany.
Stalker’s article on adaptation to climate change is essential because it focuses on more modernized cases where there is a need to adapt to newer and better technology, which would resolve climatic menace. The technological adaptations in the agriculture sector are mainly advanced scientific equipment or materials like remote satellites, as well as other diverse forms of knowledge. Consequently, the authors aver that advanced technologies entail either the application of soft or hard agricultural practices like opting for newer irrigation schemes or using drought resistant seeds. On the other hand, softer measures include insurances and crop rotation patterns.
Gilligan and Stalker share the same points of view of human adaptability to changing climate for the sake of their survival. Other similarities are that people in the past and present regimes have been the main threat to climate conditions. Therefore, they need to implement and adapt to modernity to survive these changes. Another similarity between both societies is the idea that human beings respond to changes by displaying new behavioral variations. Some of the primary and predominant responses include either moving to different locations or changing their occupations to evade climatic changes and look for newer and habitable conditions. Moreover, the application of technology in both articles is obvious and predominant where these technological changes were complex or simple in the past. At the same time, presently, they are either soft or hard undertakings.
Reference
Gilligan, I. (2007). Neanderthal extinction and modern human behavior: the role of climate change and clothing. World Archaeology, 39(4), 499-514
Stalker, P. (2006). Technologies for Adaptation to Climate Change. UNFCCC): Bonn, Germany.
