A Lesson from History
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." History is a very important topic for us to study. That is why the governnent requires schools to teach basic world and national history. We need to know how we came to be a country and what past generations have done to make the country we live in today.
Of course no country is perfect but we have a much better lifestyle than our ancestors did. We no longer rely on systemized slavery and we have many laws to protect women and children from exploitation and dangerous activities.
Ancient history may not seem to have many lessons for us but that is not really true. For example, today we are faced with the challenge of global warming. Although the world has been getting warmer for thousands of years most experts agree that Mankind has speeded up the process. More importantly, global warming will change the way our planet manages its ecosystems.
Thousands of years ago the Saraswati river in India dried up. This once mighty river and several others supported a widespread culture with many cities and towns. The people living near those rivers either died or moved away.
But whereas thousands of years ago people could just migrate away from once green lands, today there are 7 billion people on the planet. There is nowhere for anyone to go. And though in the ancient world many tribes attacked their neighbors and pushed them aside (or conquered them) the United Nations won't allow that to happen.
So we need to study ancient cities that exist in what are now deserts and learn how their peoples managed water systems. China is already facing a national water crisis and modern river systems in Pakistan and India are drying up (again). Scientists also say that the Arabian peninsula was once green, as was the Sahara desert.
By studying the changes in these ancient ecosystems and the peoples who once lived in them we can learn what will happen to our own societies as global warming changes the world around us. Even as ocean levels slowly rise some of our largest deserts are growing larger. Will we fight new wars for "green" territory or will we learn to work together and help each other?
History has too many important lessons to teach us for us to ignore it. Global warming has been going on for a long time. Mankind has been challenged by this phenomenon before. We must pay careful attention to what happened in the past so that we learn how to deal with these challenges in the future.
I hope enough people agree with me to make a difference.