General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are human beings an evolutionary mistake? [View all]Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Stone tools with an edge allowed butchering of larger animals. Control of fire let us cook meat so that it was more digestible. The fat and protein helped us to evolve to be stronger and smarter.
Clothing allowed us to move from the tropic into the temperate zone, penetrating more ecological niches in an expanded geography. Tailored, multi-layer clothing enabled us to stay outside the tropics during the last ice age and then penetrate the arctic zones.
Domestication of plants and animals vastly increased our ability to exploit ecological resources. There was an interesting theory advanced recently that a desire for clothing was the driver for the first domestication of goats and sheep, as well as grasses used for fiber. The end result is that most of the land area that is not covered by mountains, glaciers or tundra, is now occupied by pastures, farms, gardens, orchards, and woodlots.