User:Dyinghouseplant/sandbox

Historical Prevalence
Environmental conservation aims to preserve and maintain various natural areas and resources, often during or after intensive human usage, though there is debate on whether conservation should focus on maintaining environments for their own sakes, or in conjunction with humanity’s usage of them. Various forms of conservation have been employed throughout human history, stemming from a need for efficient agricultural practices. Crop rotations were one popular technique used to maintain arability of land. Though some records date back further, Leviticus 25:4, written around the 6th century BC, references letting land lie fallow every seven years, which is a preliminary form of the modern-day strategies. Additionally, terracing of fields in hilly areas reduces soil erosion and has been practised for millenia, as shown in the 2,000-year-old World Heritage rice paddies of the Phillippine Cordilleras. In these cases, instances of environmental conservation were a response to population growth and therefore, a necessary means of survival.

Evolution to a Discipline
With the rise of European colonialism and need for building materials, deforestation became a concern for academics of the time. John Evelyn, an English diarist and tree-specialist, published Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions in 1664, with support from the prestigious Royal Society. This was an influential work in forestry academia, as conservation shifted from a survival technique to a concern of higher scholarly merit. In 1760, Reverend Jared Eliot published Essays Upon Field-Husbandry in New England, with conclusions pertaining to the ensuring of adequate soil maintenance, use of fertilizers, and the management of irrigation and water runoff, after several years of experimentation and study. Ultimately, he predicted problems that would occur as the population grew and land became less plentiful. One of the most recent markers of conservation’s promotion to a discipline was the creation of higher educational degrees in Environmental Studies or related fields. Syracuse University was one of the first in the early 1950’s, but it was followed by many other institutions. The Stanford Earth Systems program was established 40 years later, and today is one of the world's most prestigious degrees for the subject of Environmental Studies.

Emergence Into Mainstream Concern
Environmental conservation entered the eye of the public when the Industrial Revolution during the late 19th century led to unhealthy living conditions and environmental degradation, pressuring governments to impose restrictions. Preservationist and conservationist factions emerged, differing on sustainable resource usage versus minimal resource usage. There occurred a revival of environmental debate in the 1960s, as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring explained the world's bleak future given its reliance on excessive production and chemical usage. In the 1980s, oil companies Shell and Exxon also carried out environmental research suggesting an 2oC temperature rise within the next 50-80 years. The burial of these figures for decades highlights economic underpinnings that hinder effective environmental research. Environmental conservation as a discipline today has acquired another level of difficulty as governments across the world, such as the US and Brazil, refuse to take science-backed action.