Enviornmental Challenges essays

Enviornmental Challenges essays An environmental challenge is something within the area that you live, that makes it difficult to settle there. Many times geography of a certain area has given certain civilizations problems that needed to be overcome. The geography of the Aztecs in Lake Texcoco and the geographical setting of the Inca civilization in the Andes mountains were both environmental challenges that the civilizations had to overcome. The Aztec civilization on lake Texcoco had a large environmental challenge because it was and island in the middle of a lake and there were no pass ways to the surrounding land. The Aztecs settled in the middle of Lake Texcoco because it was where they saw a bird sitting on a cactus holding a snake in its mouth, a sign from the Gods that's where they should settle. The challenges the Aztecs faced were a lack of food, because the island wasn't big enough for a temple and many gardens. The other environmental challenge they faced was transportation back to the main land because the main civilization was on the island. Even though the civilization faced these problems, they adapted to over come them. The Aztec civilization on lake Texcoco adapted quite easily to over come these environmental challenges. The first way the Aztec civilization adapted was to build floating gardens surrounding the island. These gardens called Chinampas, supplied food to the whole Aztec civilization. The chinampas were made of dirt piled on top of rafts that were anchored to the bottom of the lake until the plants roots touched the bottom. After this was accomplished, the plants were able to be harvested and the civilization would not go hungry. The chinampas were really a novel idea because they dint have to water the plants, for their roots could absorb water whenever they needed. Another way the Aztecs adapted to their challenging environment was building bridges from the island to the mainland. By building bridges, the Azte...