A Common Thread in More Than Just History Class

The event and topic which we have covered in history class this year that has reoccured throughout my other classes at Parker has to be that of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in relation to the environment and environment-related history. Especially in science this year, we have focused on the sustainability of the planet and actually have referenced and referred to the Hierarchy of Needs as we were discussing how to sustain life and survive on an island (considering consuming renewable versus non-renewable sources, the rate of consumption of resources, etc.). As we were discussing the scenario of the small Islanders, we discussed how without their basic needs, as referred to earlier in the year during the environment unit and early civilizations including that of the Mohenjo Daro, Mesopotamia, etc., natural resources were essential in the survival of the people--all based off of and determined by the hierarchy of needs. I stated: on the island, as the population grew to a new high that the island had never seen before, the island did not have a big enough quantity of resources and materials to accommodate and sustain so many people. As the population increased, space as well as resources which the environment provided society with decreased as the demand for them to be supplied rose to an extreme hight. The island did not naturally have enough to supply each individual with the things they needed to sustain themselves, and without resources from their environment, the society and population decreased until it eventually disappeared completely. The smaller society before this expansive one preserved and maintained the environment so well in order to sustain themselves and provide their living style with the resources needed to survive. This is precisely applicable to what we studied earlier in the history year, as the civilizations earlier on did not accommodate for the essential and fundamental needs of the people involved, and therefore, led to a decline in population and ultimately making history. As civilizations got more modern, progressing over the next hundred years, we get to establishments like that of Hammurabi’s, where law is instituted in order to keep the fundamentals intact and not let society loose hold of them as it would cause much controversy and decline in population, resources, and ultimately the legal powers in place. Although, disregarding the legalities of the scenarios, throughout the year, sustainability has been a common thread in many of my other, non-historically focused classes, and inadvertently, the Hierarchy of Needs came up in the conversation/investigation as it proved to be such a fundamental property of the sustainability and progression of history, and now I see, scientific history and english history as well.