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Humans have a variety of effects on the physical environment, including, pollution, overcrowding, combustion, fossil fuels and deforestation. Climate change, land erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water have all been induced by such changes. These negative consequences can influence human behaviour and lead to mass migrations or water wars.
Human activity depends on ecosystem goods and services (EGS). Farmers, foresters, fishermen, and a slew of other people collect the wealth of nature, while others make a living altering and selling it. Ecosystem services provide social and health advantages such as education and recreation opportunities, such as the pleasure we derive from strolling through the forests or parks. Ecosystems create the oxygen we breathe, recycle the nutrients that allow all things to develop and filter the water we drink, and their architecture and functions benefit people.
Human activities in the environment
Hundreds of extinctions have been directly ascribed to human activities in the last two centuries, as opposed to the millions of years that extinctions occur naturally. Humans have impacted the globe in unimaginable ways as we go through the twenty-first century.
Human impact on the environment has become a hot topic among university professors around the world. While they look for an answer, the general people must help. At the very least, you must be aware of all variables that contribute to this situation and share your knowledge.
Overpopulation
Repopulation used to be synonymous with survival. However, as we are approaching the maximum carrying capacity that our planet can endure, the opposite is rapidly becoming true.
Since death rates have reduced, medicine has improved a lot, and various new industrial agricultural methods have been adopted, overpopulation has become an epidemic, keeping humans alive for much longer and increasing the total population. Overpopulation has a number of negative consequences, the most serious of which is environmental deterioration. Humans require a lot of area, whether for farming or for industries, which also take up a lot of space. More clear-cutting occurs as the population grows, resulting in severely devastated ecosystems. CO2 levels rise when there aren’t enough trees to filter the air, which has the potential to harm every living thing on the planet.
Global Warming
Global warming is undoubtedly the most significant environmental impact. CO2 levels are the most significant factor, ranging from respiration to more harmful ones such as fossil fuel combustion and deforestation.
In any case, people are steadily rising CO2 levels over the world—every year. Before 1950, the maximum reported CO2 level was around 300 parts per million. Current CO2 levels, however, have surpassed 400 PPM, erasing all previous records stretching back 400,000 years. CO2 emissions have contributed to a nearly one-degree increase in the planet’s average temperature.
Climate Change
Climate change is inextricably linked to the evolution of technology and industry history. The weather patterns on Earth will shift dramatically as global temperatures will rise. While some areas will have extended growing seasons, others will become barren wastelands as massive quantities of water become depleted, transforming once-floral regions into deserts.
The rise will possess an impact on weather patterns, thereby resulting in larger and more frequent hurricanes, along with exacerbating and prolonging hot waves and droughts. However, air pollution has consequences that go beyond the environment. Poor air quality and increasing temperatures are destroying delicate ecosystems, leading to increased asthma and cancer rates in humans, according to mounting data.
Deforestation
As the human population grows at an exponential rate, more food, resources, and shelter are produced at incredible rates, primarily through forestry. Deforestation refers to a huge threat to the survival of millions of species that live in forests, thus making it a major conservation issue. It also leads to an increase in the greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, thereby contributing to even more global warming. If we are to exist, such human activities must be stopped completely. Recent research has linked deforestation to an increase in flames in places like the Amazon. Wildfires do far more destruction, displacing people and entire species.
Acid Rain
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere when humans burn coal, where they rise up and gather in clouds until the clouds become saturated and rain acid, wreaking havoc on the ground underneath.
When rain falls, it collects in water bodies, posing a particular threat to lakes and tiny bodies of water. The acid is absorbed by the earth around the water, depleting the soil of important nutrients. Trees that absorb acid produce toxins, which damage leaves and eventually kill big swaths of forest. Acid rain has also been known to wipe out entire fish species, triggering a cascade of destruction to an ecosystem that depends on a varied range of animals to survive.
Elements of Human Environment
Population
The population of a region is extremely important to its development. Population is now seen as an asset or a human resource rather than a liability. It has also been found that a place may confront numerous challenges if it lacks human resources while having abundant natural resources. Countries like Japan and Korea have advanced mostly through utilising their human resources.
Scientists have built new machines one after the other, developed new crop kinds with higher yields, developed new chemicals, and found various ways to improve the standard of living. With the help of all of these, they are able to effect changes in agriculture, transportation, and working conditions, resulting in the creation of a new and dynamic cultural environment.
Race
White, yellow, and black have traditionally been used to categorise all races around the world. The intrinsic racial traits of these three races can be identified in economic, social, and political processes. White individuals living in temperate climates are more active than black people living in hot, humid climates, and as a result, the latter are economically underdeveloped.
Religion
The religious affiliation of the population has an impact on a region’s social and economic growth. Depending on the religious beliefs, many actions are either recommended or discouraged. In India, for example, cows are regarded as sacred, and Hindus do not allow the production or commercialization of meat.
Similarly, alcohol consumption, as well as the breeding and keeping of pigs, are not encouraged in Islamic countries. Christians, on the other hand, have no such limits, and as a result, they are more evolved economically and commercially.
Government
Some human actions are either encouraged or discouraged by government rules and regulations. The execution of various welfare government programmes can help a region improve and develop, whereas anti-people schemes can stifle economic development and social upliftment.
When a region’s government is led by capable and active leaders who are also foresighted, the region develops more quickly. The Government of India’s developmental plans and strategies include the Five Year Plans, Industrial Policy, identification of backward regions and populations, International Trade Policy, and Technological and Scientific Development Policy.
Conclusion
Human activities on sea and in the land can possess a significant impact on ecosystems. Many issues confront ecosystems, including ocean acidification, climate change, habitat loss, permafrost melting, stormwater runoff, eutrophication, pollutants, air pollution, and invasive species. The combined effects of these issues, as well as a variety of other stresses, can have major consequences for ecosystem processes and EGS availability. Human activities have basically harmed the environment for thousands of years. Since we originally walked the globe as Homo sapiens, the Earth and its surroundings have changed dramatically due to the development of infrastructure, travel, and the incorporation of urbanisation and other commercial networks. The transformation, on the other hand, has been both positive and bad, with the betterment eventually leading to the worse.
