Human Activity : The Environment : Humans And The Environment

What are the characteristics that define the nature of the relationship between humans and the natural environment? Explain.

“The fact of the matter is that today, stuff-selling mega-corporations have a huge influence on our daily lives. And because of the competitive nature of our global economy, these corporations are generally only concerned with one thing…the bottom line. That is, maximizing profit, regardless of the social or environmental costs.” —David Suzuki

In order to fully survive, it is very crucial to constantly maintain the environment at a healthy rate. The main aspect that truly affects and drives our environment is the economy. The environment is always brought up within social political debates across the country as it is very difficult for Americans to come to a consensus since we have the right to speak our every thoughts. Two of the major political parties, Republicans and Democrats, are two completely different parties that constantly struggle to settle on the same position. In this essay, I will discuss the political parties’ beliefs about the environment.

In class, we have discussed that there is a constant battle of protecting the environment, but also wanting

The environment and climate change have recently become high profile issues, but that does not mean they haven’t been issues in the past. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt created the National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants. In 1970, Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws. The Bush and Obama administrations had different stands on a lot of issues, and it’s no different when it comes to issues regarding the environment.

While talking about the Environment we need to touch briefly on FEMA before we move on. Considering all the natural disasters that have hit our country over the past few years (and escalating) I'm sure most of you are at least familiar with this agency. If not, FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency, your to-go in case of emergency in our country, forest fire, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, mudslide, volcanic eruption, they cover it all. If some act of nature has knocked over your community, they step in and help dig you out and, in theory, give you funds to help rebuild and get your life back in order.

The environment is constantly being sacrificed for food production, toxic dumps, wood distribution, military testing, and other things such as these. And as usual, the root lies in profit. The corporations can’t afford to be concerned with the future well being of the earth and it’s dwellers. Also, environmental pollution can be connected to racism and classism because it is the poor communities that are used for toxic dumps and prisons, and it’s the poor people who work in the factories that require having contact with harmful chemicals and technologies, and generally the poor communities consist of people of color.

Human beings are dangerously harming the environment. The destruction of rain forests, overfishing, nuclear testing, soil erosion, fossil fuels, desertification, and landfills all have one thing in common, caused by humans. Numerous individuals are unaware these alone are destroying the environment. Individuals have learned in regards to our planet throughout the years, we know trees are a big necessity since they provide us with oxygen; the ocean’s ecosystem creates a food chain with supply and demand for both humans and aquatic life, and chemicals produced by human experimentation leads to pollution, which harms plants, animals, aquatic life and human lives. When it comes to the health of our planet, I firmly believe humans are the reason

Human-Environment Interaction, HEI, is the study of how humans interact with the an environment and vice-versa. An example of environment interacting with humans is climate, this affects what humans have to wear, adapt, and what form their shelter will look like. An example of humans interacting with the environment is when factories pollute the air, water, and nature. Human-Environment Interaction is very important because it deals with how with how humans live because of the environment and how the environment changes us. Human-Environment Interaction deals with the aftermath of the environment and humans interacting with each others. Lastly this topic describes how we modify the environment, adapt to the environment, and depend on the environment.

Environmental degradation is one of the most widely discussed subjects of our generation. The media floods the masses with information concerning global warming, terrifying the public. Meanwhile, hundreds of scientific foundations are formulating solutions to the exponential depletion of our natural resources and environmental firms are working tirelessly to limit the detrimental impact humans are having on their ecosystem. Environmental policies also play an integral role in politics, each candidate having their own views on such issues as: ecosystem and waste management, endangered species and natural resource preservation. All humans, as inhabitants of earth, have a responsibility to maintain

Sedentism and domestication represent not just a technological change but also a change in worldview. Land was no longer a free good, available to anyone, with resources scattered randomly across the landscape; it was transformed into particular territories, collectively or individually owned, on which people raised crops and flocks.  Thus, sedentism and a high level of resource extraction (whether by complex foraging or farming) led to concepts of property that were rare in previous foraging societies. Graves, grave goods, permanent housing, grain-processing equipment, as well as the fields and herds, connected people to places.  The human mark on the environment was larger and more obvious following sedentization and the rise of farming; people transformed the landscape in more dramatic ways--building terraces or walls to hold back floods.

We delude ourselves into thinking that we live in the ideal society, that property ownership via capitalism is the best socio-economic system that we have available. This system of having businesses owned by private individuals places profit as society’s central motivator. Profit being the primary incentive has proven, especially within recent times, to elicit detrimental consequences. Environmental viability takes a back seat to capital gain.

Our planet faces serious problems, ranging from high emission rates, to extreme waste, we are using the equivalent of approximately 1.6 planets to provide us the resources we require to produce and absorb our waste (“World’). The result of this radical overuse of resources is less forest cover, global warming, air pollution, depletion of fresh water and the overall buildup of pollutants. "Nearly two-thirds, 63%, of all industrial carbon dioxide and methane released into the atmosphere since 1854 can be traced to fossil fuel and cement production by just 90 entities" (‘Largest Producers”). All 90 of those entities are big businesses with even bigger data. Many companies have started using big

The economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.

Outdoor recreation is a big part of humans interacting with the environment. Hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, visiting national parks, examining wildlife, and traveling: these are the primary outdoor recreational activities in the United States. Each one has a significant impact on the environment. At some outdoor recreational activity spots there are restrictions as to where guests can walk and how much of the environment they can explore. This isn’t to make the guests mad; it is to preserve nature and make it last a long time, so the visitors can come back in years to come.