Human ecology

Human ecology
Ecology influenced the social sciences and humanities. Human ecology began in the early 20th century and it recognized humans as an ecological factor. It became a distinct field of study in the 1970s. This marked the first recognition that humans, who had colonized all of the Earth s continents, were a major ecological factor. Humans greatly modify the environment through the development of the habitat (in particular urban planning), by intensive activities such as logging and fishing, and as side effects of agriculture, mining, and industry. The development of human ecology led to the increasing role of ecological science such as anthropology and ethnology, economics, demography, architecture and urban planning, medicine and psychology, and many more, in the design and management of cities.
When the Ecological Society of America (ESA) was held in 1915, it already had a conservation perspective. Victor E. Shelford, a leader in the society’s formation, had as one of its goals the preservation of the natural areas that were then the objects of study by ecologists, but were in danger of being degraded by human incursion. The ESA’s second president, Ellsworth Huntington, was a human ecologist. Stephen Forbes, another early president, called for "humanizing" ecology in 1921, since man was clearly the dominant species on the Earth.