What is a civilization?

When wondering what a civilization is one must look back on past civilizations and see what they all had in common. You should probably see a few things. One, all civilizations contain a large amount of people. And two, it wasn't complete anarchy. There was at least some form of government. Also it had to last a fairly long time. Not a thousand years but a large portion of time. Lastly people had to be united. Had to share a similar culture. There are a lot of variables that put together a civilization but the main ones are people, and unity. Those two things make a culture and civilization last.
With out people, there would not be civilization. There would even be a population or individual. Obviously with out people then civilization is out of the picture.
The second component a society must have is unity. It is what makes a civilization different than an anarchy. When there is unity and peace a society won't have internal conflict and will preserve itself. Also it will allow a culture to develop after a while. Overall it is population and unity is what make a civilization.

Our First Civilization

For our first civilization project my groups society was fairly simple but it could survive easily. Our civilization only had what it needed to survive. It had a source of clean fresh water, a pasture where it could raise livestock to eat, lots of different crops, adequate places to live, a shelter from hurricanes that could come off the coast and a huge fire pit where the inhabitants could cook their food and stay warm.
Our civilization acquired it's drinking water from a river which flowed into the ocean. They could also get both freshwater and salt water fish from the ocean estuaries and river. Having both salt water and freshwater fish helped the inhabitants get a wide diversity of fish.
The citizens of this civilization would not only get their food from the land. They would also get sustenance from the crops they grew which they also had a wide diversity of due to the temperate weather of the regione. When moving to the new area, they brought animals like sheep and cows and chickens and pigs. They used these few original animals to make a large pool of meat to get protein from.
For shelter, the citizens of this area have houses made out of mud and stone, and a panic shelter which is a huge hole/cave dug into the ground covered by two wooden doors. This shelter protects people from the strong winds of hurricanes and the torrential rain as well. It is big enough to fit a majority of the people living in the village but is only used by people who's homes are not strong enough to tough it out through the storms.
Overall our first civilization is simple but strong and resilient. It will use it's simplicity to make it survive the longest by not over fishing or over populating the area with livestock and it will do so by doing everything in moderation.

Humans and the Environment

For the past ten thousand years humans have both benefited from the environment and suffered from it as well. Humans have used their environment to grow crops and sustain livestock. But humans have also been affected by the environment in negative ways as well. For example the black plague, Sumatra tsunami and the Haitian earthquake. These two gargantuan products made by the environment helped or hindered humans.
The environment has been the life source for human beings for as long as we have been on earth. It has provided food, water, air and everything else that humans need to exist. With out the environment we would all be dead so the environment has been the number one factor in the survival of mankind.
The environment has not only helped the human population grow but it has also aided in the depletion of the human race as well. Disasters like black plague which killed fifty million people, the Sumatra tsunami which killed almost three hundred thousand people and the Haitian earthquake which killed over three hundred thousand people. These events show that the environment has a chilling way of keeping the population of humans under control.

Was Haiti prepared for it's earthquake?

Given the history of disasters in Haiti, should the citizens of Haiti have been more prepared for the earthquake? Yes they should have. Due to political corruption in Haiti it was almost impossible to make advancements in government or even building safety. Even the presidential palace crumbled in mear seconds into the earthquake showing how impoverished the country is.
After a History of earthquakes, storms and hurricanes Haiti should have probably been a little more prepared. Haitians should have adapted to where they lived and built more disaster proof buildings. They should have learned from their past like Japan or New Zealand where almost all their buildings are made to withstand disasters.
In the end Haiti should have had more disaster proof structures but it would be hard to fund them to the political insecurity and corruption

The Press
Christchurch New Zealand
January Sixteenth 2010
Haiti, Earthquake, Prepared

The Haitian Earthquake

The Haitian Earthquake was Similar to Katrina on numerous fronts. One example is that both disasters occurred in the last decade with all it's new technology and ways to help people but both fronts were clogged up by each countries government.
In Haiti millions in dollars of aid was pouring in from all over the globe to help disaster relief. With so much aid flying in and the haitian government still recovering from the earthquake no one set organization was really handling all the donations coming in. Soon aid was not reaching the people affected by the earthquake because the government could not pull itself together and help it's people. A similar problem occurred a few years prior to this event in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. A few days after the hurricane FEMA and Homeland Security argued about who's job it was to help the victims of Katrina in New Orleans. Both Haiti and the U.S. system of government had halted themselves on helping its people.