Human Impact on The Environment Essay
Usually we hear the world “environment” in a negative context. Environment is the “damsel in distress” for humanity, it needs to be saved from pollution, ecological disasters and generally from the human impact on the environment. But if we take the basic definition – the environment is just everything that surrounds us.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
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Despite our major responsibility for everything that happens with natural environment and full responsibility for what happens with social environment, the environment in general is not only a bunch of problems we created and need to fix now. It is a complex system that we have to live in.
The nature that surrounds us is, obviously, the natural environment. We are used to think about it as about a fragile system with lots of interconnections that can easily be ruined by human impact on the environment. But, as any other system created by nature (including our own body and brain), natural environment is much more durable than we think.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
As our body can regenerate and our brain can rebuild the broken neuron paths through delegating the functions of the injured part to the other areas, natural environment renews itself, adjusting to the new conditions like ice ages or changing the axis of the Earth. The real trouble is just in the time it needs to regenerate. Usually the global changes take centuries to occur – it is very fast on geological scale, but enough for the living and flexible part of the world to change accordingly.
But human impact on the environment takes decades instead of centuries to change the world around and the changes become more and more fast and drastic. It is like giving our body mere hours to heal the previous wounds before inflicting new ones or taking the native African to the Arctica to live.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
Humanity thinks too much of itself, claiming that it can destroy the Earth. As George Carlin once said: “the planet is fine, the people are [in trouble]”. The Earth and its ecosystem have survived the explosion of supernova nearby that caused the first great extinction of the ocean life, the Permian extinction that wiped out more than ninety percent of the species inhabiting the Earth at that time and, of course, the Jurassic catastrophe, when life again had to start everything anew. What people really should care about is for destroying the natural environment that is best suitable for them.
From the very beginning of the civilization humans started to create environment that is beneficial for them. Houses are artificial caves, crops are artificial lanes with edible plants and animal farms are the source of easy prey and a substitute for hunting. Every person in environment created artificially can feel relatively safer than in natural environment. All the development of the infrastructure has the one and only goal – to make places for human living more comfortable.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
After fulfilling the basic needs of being fed and having a place to live, humans started to create social environment – the places to communicate, to have fun, to conduct rituals that are important for the society. The thousands of years of human history were almost unnoticed for the planet on global scale, because everything was built from the easily recycling materials.
Almost everything done by our ancestors except glass and metal items was as fine for ecosystem as rocks, sand and rotten organic remains, the amount of pollution caused by human impact on the environment could be easily neglected. Surely, humanity hastened the extinction of some species people hunted, but, if we look at these events from the scope of the planetary ecosystem, this loss wasn’t essential for survival.
The troubles started with the industrial revolution, when the factories started producing plastic and other substances based on oil. The common trait of these substances is that they either do not degrade naturally or take centuries to disappear completely. They can’t be used by the wildlife and just stay where they are, taking space from the natural materials.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
While the quantity of people of the planet grew, the demand for everything, naturally, grew accordingly. People got used to the level of comfort they had and they needed more and more materials to create environment they can feel the same comfort while growing in numbers. To get these materials now people have the two easiest options: to increase the usage of the natural materials, like wood, or to create more complicated and cheap artificial materials disregarding their impact on natural environment.
Surely, the humanity is now thinking heavily about taking the third option: green energy, using the asteroids as source of valuable materials and clear water, biodegradable materials, renewing the organic materials taken from the ecosystem – but, as we stated before, the trouble isn’t in finding the solution. The real issue is that humanity shall find the solution before it wipes itself from the face of the Earth, shooting itself in the leg.
One of the perfect solution would be slowing down the production of goods. There is already too much of everything that is made all over the world. Moreover, the items are made deliberately to be almost unrepairable. The big companies want to make sure that they will have the steady income from their own service centers and stores that will sell the new things to substitute broken ones. Fifty years ago almost everyone who had a car knew how to disassemble that car, fix it and assemble it back.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
The same thing was true for almost every piece of furniture and every technical device people had at home. The technics was rare and valuable, so it was worth repairing. Now the technics is so widespread and easy to break that people prefer to spend their time for earning money to buy the new item, not to learn the instruction and repair the used one. Moreover, the consumerism dictates the increasing demand: when SomePhone X+1 is released, SomePhone X automatically turns into trash.
It is natural to buy the cheapest product, but usually, in developing countries where the factories are situated, the ecological safety is the first thing in the list that can be omitted to lower the price of production. The ecological laws and regulations in such countries are deliberately allowing the pollution to get more orders from the customers abroad. But polluting the countries from the other side of the globe doesn’t mean we are safe. It only means we will be the last to be poisoned.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
When you return home, try to count how many useless things you have around. Maybe the shirt or the dress that was worn just once? Or the pile of the broken cellphones you don’t know what to do with? Headphones that you are going to repair “later” for more than a year? We’re pretty sure that everyone of us will find lots and lots of such things. It doesn’t mean we all are bad. It means only that we didn’t think about it before and just did what everyone else did, or what the advertisement told us to be the easiest and the most comfortable thing to do.
Everything that humanity needs to create civilization that is friendly to the current natural environment requires thinking. It doesn’t mean reducing the level of comfort – just thinking, paying more attention to daily activities and self-educating. To reduce the destructive human impact on the environment humanity just needs to slow down.
Slow the reproducing rates and production rates. Care more about the already existing children who need to be raised in decent conditions instead of making lots of brand new. Re-learn to repair technics you have, sort the trash, use green energy (or make your local authorities use it) and think about the things that we use in our daily life, not taking the first we see from the store shelf.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
Thinking about preserving the natural environment suitable for us doesn’t turn us into zealous vegan hippies in the worst meaning of these words. It just makes us all a bit more thoughtful about what we do, a bit more aware of our daily lives. There are plenty of examples of people and whole families who do this on their daily basis and they don’t lose any comfort of their life.
At least no more than those who go jogging instead of sleeping a half of an hour more. Caring about the environment is not caring about the abstract planet – it is caring about your own home, your own well-being and the well-being of your future descendants. So doing it is equally important to cleaning your house or keeping your body fit and healthy
The Impact of Human Activities on the Environment
Everything that humans do has some impact on the environment. Pollution is a result of human activities in the environment. The main sources of pollution are farming, water pollution and air pollution.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
Farming is having an increased impact on the environment. This is because there is increased pressure on farmers to produce a single crop and to concentrate on one form of animal husbandry, such as, dairy cattle or pig breeding. This is more economical because better use can be made of equipment and organizations such as supermarkets have fewer farmers to negotiate purchases with. Also transport is much easier so produce can be easily moved to more…show more content…
Pests are organisms that damage or destroy crops and livestock. There are different types of chemical pesticides for killing different types of pest. Insecticides kill insect pests, herbicides kill weeds and fungicides kill disease- causing fungi. Biodegradable pesticides are broken down by the activities of organisms and only remain in the environment for short time after they are applied. Non-biodegradable pesticides cannot be broken down by organisms and remain in the environment for long periods. Bioaccumulation of non-biodegradable pesticides happens in food chains and webs.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
There were written a lot of human impact on the environment essays, works and reports. We investigate the problem caused by human activities and advancement. A lot was said and many researches were conveyed to support the notion of environmental problems. Yet, there is still what to add to these issues and concerns. People influenced greatly the natural environment and now suffer from ecological pollution they caused.
In my impact of human activities on environment essay I want to highlight the key issues and suggest probable solutions to problems. It is time for people not only to identify environmental problem but to set certain goals and achieve specific results. Among all environmental problems the main stumbling point is the impact of overpopulation on the environment.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
Essay Sample
The main impact of humans activity is the pollution of every sphere on the Earth – air, soil, and water. Over the last two centuries mankind polluted environment more than over the whole history of humans. The key causes of pollution are overpopulation, modern technology development, higher living standards, poor city planning and lack of ecological conscience. The growth of population causes overproduction and industry advancement needs power that is provided by combustion of fossil fuel. The main types of pollution are air pollution, soil pollution and water pollution.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
We pollute air with different chemicals as Sulphur dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen oxides and lead. They are supplied from burning fuel as coal and petroleum, emitted by big factories, plants and automobiles. They cause a lot of diseases and illnesses as chronic lung disease and asthma, respiratory diseases, irritate eyes, nose and lungs.These emissions also result in increased acidity of water and soil, cause greenhouse effect, produce smog and other negative impacts.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
According to the recent research only 2.5 % of water is drinkable water. People consume about 50 liters of fresh water a day to satisfy their needs. Indeed we foul our own nest. We spend more efforts and money to purify water. Yet, over the last decades we began to use more household detergents for cleaning the house which pollute water and cause different allergies. We use water for drinking, irrigation and industry. Plants dump their wastes into rivers that flow these pollutants to the World Ocean. These contaminants decrease oxygen dissolving, result in excessive algae and red tides.
Land gives us fruit and vegetables we consume every day. Soil pollution involves solid wastes, pesticides, erosion of soil and fire. Wastes can be toxic and non-degradable. Excessive use of pesticides cause negative effects on soil and water. Fire when uncontrolled can ruin natural environment of many animals and living organisms.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
Ozone layer absorbs harmful short-wave radiation and is a thermal blanket of the Earth. A lot of chemicals that cause the ozone depletion are now banned. Chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration and aerosols are thought to destroy the ozone layer.
Global warming or greenhouse effect is a well-known problem caused by human activities. The increased emission of CO2 does not let sun rays to go through atmosphere and turns back to the Earth, thus causing the increase of temperature. The rise of the temperature leads to melting of ice in the Polar circle and Siberia. When melting ice produces additional emission of carbon dioxide and methane, the greenhouse gases that influence on global warming. It is a vicious circle we are in. Moreover, deforestation and intensive cutting down of the forests do not allow to absorb this greenhouse gases.Human Impact on The Environment Essay
When CO2 dissolves with water it creates carbonic acid. The ocean acidity increased in 30% in the last 200 years. This acid influences on calcium concentration and prevents crustaceans from building their shells. Ocean increased acidity damages reefs that are the main environment for many sea animals.
It is obvious that humans made a great impact on nature and environment but we have to learn how to improve the situation and correct mistakes we made. People try to conserve water and electricity, help endangered animals and create different National parks to save original flora and fauna. We must unite our efforts in order to maintain and take care for the place we live in – our Earth. Human Impact on The Environment Essay