HOLIVAR2006 Abstracts
The role of people in the Holocene.
Frank Oldfield
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZT, UK
Contact: Frank Oldfield (frank@maryoldfield.wanadoo.co.uk)
Any current definition of the Earth System sees human activities as an integral part of its functioning. People are active players, not passive recipients of whatever the 'natural' environment provides. For most, this realisation applies especially to the last 60 years. But human impact on the environment has a much longer history than this. It is especially appropriate to explore this longer term history in the context of the HOLIVAR initiative, for some of the clearest evidence for past human impact has come through research in Europe. Moreover, as we turn southward from Europe to Africa, that continent includes some of the people most vulnerable to the combined effects of climate variability and human activities.
Human-environment interactions are complex and interrelated. They are significant both for understanding the present day environment and for addressing the likely course of future environmental change. Here, five interlinked themes are considered: the impact of human activities, acting alongside and interacting with Holocene climate change, on past and present ecosystems; the effects of past land use/land cover changes on climate; the combined effects of the above on the hydrological cycle and on erosion regimes; the effects of past land use/land cover changes on atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations; and the effects of climate change on human societies in the past.
The last two themes especially are controversial. Ruddiman's proposal that human activities have had significant effects on atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane from 8k and 5k BP respectively have attracted considerable interest and controversy. The final theme has often focused on societal collapse, seen by some as climatically induced, by others as reflecting poor adaptive strategies by the societies involved. The view presented here stresses the need to unravel and learn from the interactions between biophysical and the social systems during times of combined stress.
Frank Oldfield obtained his PhD from the University of Leicester in 1962 and was awarded an honorary DSc from Plymouth University in 2000. He was a lecturer at the universities of Leicester and Lancaster and in 1967 became Professor of Geography and Dean of the School of Biological and Environmental Studies at the New University of Ulster. Following a time as Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Papua New Guinea and Director of Independent Studies at the University of Lancaster, in 1975 Frank Oldfield became the John Rank Professor of Geography at the University of Liverpool. From 1996-2001 he was the Executive Director of IGBP Past Global Changes (PAGES) and he is currently the Emeritus Professor of Geography and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool. His research interests include past environmental change; radioisotope chronologies; application of magnetic measurements to environmental systems; environmental contamination; and scientific methodology and he has published over 200 scientific papers, chapters, and books. Frank Oldfield has received the BGRG Linton Award, the RGS/IGBP Murchison Prize, and was Former President and now honorary member of the Quaternary Research Association.