How Antibiotics Have Changed The Environment Research Paper

Human existence and their impact on the natural environment is a concept that is extremely pressing in the world today. We as a species have completely altered the natural world to an extent where the new world is now forever changed because of human actions and values. Historically humans have felt entitled to the natural world. Humans have manipulated and changed the environment to suit their needs often without boundaries. With this, the time or era in which humans became the dominant force in environmental change can be defined as the anthropocene. The start of the anthropocene is a highly debated topic in academia and among historians because of the diverse ways in which humans have changed the environment. I have chosen a object that

Antibiotics were first introduced to the medical field with the discovery of Penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. In time, the use of antibiotics and vaccines lead to many diseases becoming extinct and the quality of life increasing dramatically in the United States and other advanced nations. However, over the course of the last century antibiotics have become increasingly accessible and common and this has put their effectiveness at risk. Today antibiotics are often overprescribed and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “30 percent of antibiotics prescribed in the United States are unnecessary” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). When antibiotics are overused what is known as antibiotic-resistance comes into play. Bacteria like most things evolve over time, through both mutations and conjugation which is the passing of code for resistance to new generations of bacteria. The presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria is increasing and humans are at risk of losing the effectiveness of these drugs at all. Minor infections and illnesses that are seen as non-threatening today, were often fatal before the discovery of antibiotics. If as a society we continue to overuse these drugs they will lose their effectiveness and subsequently we will lose many medical advances. Most major

Historian Julia Thomas brings forth interesting perspectives on the relevance human biology in her article titled History and Biology in the Anthropocene: Problems of Scale, Problems of Value. Thomas argues that engagement between hard sciences like biology and chemistry and the soft social sciences like history “[reveal] multiple, often incommensurable truths rather than a single answer” (Thomas 1588). Thomas examines how hard sciences bring forth findings that cannot be explained through historical contexts alone, like for example the difference in the biology of humans. Thomas identifies that the human species differs more than often thought. She shares that “99.9 percent of our human DNA is shared” but “our microbial cells may have as little as 50 percent of their genetic profile in common” (Thomas 1595). The explanation for this differentiation can be explained through exposure to different environments. As I previously discussed, organisms evolve and “microbial part of us evolves more rapidly than the non-microbial part of us and can respond more quickly to environmental changes” (Thomas 1597). This provides reason to why antibiotic resistance varies globally. Subsequently, the “superbugs” can be explained through laws, regulation and exposure to antibiotics. And due to the variance of these factors country to country it is