The Human Impact On Natural Environment

“Erosion occurs when the soil lacks protective vegetative cover”. (Pimentel, Kounang, 1998) “Soil erosion reduces the productivity of the land by loss of water, soil, organic matter, nutrients, biota, and depth of soil.” (Pimentel, Kounang, 1998) With no conservation methods in place in certain places like: no contour farming, no cover crop, no terraces, no water ways, and tillage on steep hills is asking for a loss of productivity from the land. The effects on the land that non-conservation methods have is horrible. “Its effects are pervasive, and its damages are long lasting. (Pimentel and others 1995a)” (Pimentel, Kounang, 1998) Soil loss is a bigger factor then most people think. For an example an comparison of how much soil is actually lost in certain environments: “On sloping agricultural land under tropical rainfall, as much as 400t/ha/yr of soil is lost (Pimentel unpublished report,1990).”(Pimentel, Kounang, 1998) “Under arid conditions with relatively strong winds, as much as 5600t/ha/yr of soil has been reported lost (Gupta and Raina 1996).” (Pimentel, Kounang, 1998) Soil loss is a huge factor when conservation practices are not put into place. “According to some investigators, approximately 75 billion tons a fertile soil are lost annually from the world’s agricultural systems (Myers 1993).” (Pimentel, Kounang, 1998) Soil loss is a huge factor and many different things can be done to help slow it,

Neglect to take care of the land after many decades is starting to show significant negative effects on the environment. Many people do not know what all entails land pollution other than the commonly known pollutions such as chemical and waste, the list may surprise you. The list includes sewage treatment, nuclear waste, construction, urbanization, industrialization, landfills, mining, logging, agricultural practices. and deforestation (Rinkesh). As humans, we have continued to develop as a species technologically, communally and agriculturally. The effects we have had on the environment through human development has not been

Urbanisation is caused by people inhabiting the cities and towns moving away from rural areas. This can be a problem because it causes Overcrowding, waste accumulation, transport systems.

As history repeats itself, we continue to notice that there are many geographic factors that effect regions across the world. A few of the most noticeable are monsoons and deserts. Over time these factors have altered the relationships between certain regions and benefitted our development in society. However, they can be extremely demoralizing as well. Not only is nature disrupted but the way in which people live on a daily basis. We are forced to make changes and adapt to the overwhelming geographic factors.

Desertification typically occurs as a result of poor management by human populations. In earlier times of history, desertification was not seen as a widespread issue, because most humans led hunter-gatherer lifestyles that caused them to frequently relocate. Thus, the land was not populated for enough time for it to become overgrazed by livestock or depleted of nutrients by over-farming and deforestation. However, in more recent history, desertification has become much more significant as agriculture-based societies became more widespread and the need to produce as much as many goods as possible overrode the need to conserve Earth’s

Desertification is the change of land once suitable for agriculture into a desert. This progression changes arable land into a desert unequipped for the growth of crops and farming practices. Dry land affects millions of people lives because the land becomes unsuitable for agriculture so the people cannot grow crops, therefore, they cannot feed them self or their livestock. Which leaves the people without food. Desertification also causes problems in the food chain. Three main causes of desertification are drought, deforestation, and Overgrazing

Climate change is a rising issue of importance in our day and age, and one that is threatening our global society on many levels. In the past few decades, scientists have discovered that our planet’s climate has been changing at an alarming rate. The way in which we have changed the land to

Environmental Issues: Increased population has led to the clearing of land for farming and the farming of marginal soils in rural areas, as well as to uncontrolled development in the fringes of urban areas. All of these factors contribute to deforestation and consequently to soil erosion.

Another reason for desertification is population pressure. The Chinese government has converted numerous forests to farmland in order to provide fertile land for agriculture. In addition, they have furthered many infrastructure projects, which has placed a strain on forest lands as well. Due to the severity of the issue, members of the United Nations Environment Programme provided a list of threatened forest which needs protection (Lallanilla, n.d.).

Ways in which humans had affected the environment in my area was by dumping drums containing paints and burying paint thinners and many other solvents into the landfill which worsened the grounds and soils of the area. The conditions though in this environment are under control and do not show any high signs of exposures to humans or creatures, meaning they have a low risk of being affected. The only actual organisms that were harmed but only in small portions included shrubs and trees in the wetlands. The site came to be polluted because of the groundwaters underneath the site, which had been contaminated by pollutants leaching from the landfills. Some ways in which we have been attempting to correct this problem was by selecting modified

Over-exploitation of the environment is caused by deforestation, over-cropping, poor farming practices, and overgrazing. When over-exploitation occurs, salination, erosion, and desertification results, causing less fertility and more hunger across the globe. Salination is caused by erosion that strips the earth of its nutrients, leaving behind salty, unfertile land. This causes plants to have less of a chance of growing properly, or not grow at all. When less plants grow, less people are fed, and more go hungry.

to be grown trees have to be cut down and I have explained the effects

Nearly everything that a human does is in response to the environment. Our lives are defined by what is around us and what we find in front of us, whether this means accepting, dealing with or changing it. This has been the pattern since primates first stood up and became Homo erectus, and has continued until we considered ourselves doubly wise. The shape of the land affected where humans moved. Weather was something with which to contend. Fire affected humans until they conquered it – and herein lies the core of the relationship. The earth affects humans, and humans affect it back, viewing characteristics and patterns as problems and challenges, and finding a solution.

Desertification is the degradation of land and soil in dryland ecosystems caused by both the climate and human activities. In the year 2000, one third of the population of the earth dwelled in dryland ecosystems, and drylands are 41% of world’s land. The effect of desertification is massive because of the amount of people that live in affected areas. Drylands facilitate 44% of the food production in the world and 50% of livestock, so these ecosystems are a very important source of resources. 2.6 billion people depend of the food developed in drylands and many of those people have jobs making the food. 52% of the land is being affected in some way by degradation because it removes the moisture that is needed to grow or herd food. Around 800 million people are going hungry and around 80% of these people are small land owners or they do not own any land and are very poor. This means that those small land owners might not have any land in the end because of the deterioration of healthy soil. Land degradation also effects water quantity and quality. Clean water is one of the most important resources in the world, and desertification eliminates that resource. 74% of those in poverty are directly affected by land degradation. 10-20% of drylands are degraded already. The places most effected by desertification are sub-Saharan and Central Asia drylands. Desertification occurs for various reasons. It can come from a failure to balance how much the ecosystem can give as

Desertification is defined by Scott E Spoolman and G. Miller in their book Living in the Environment as “the conversion of rangeland, rain-fed cropland, or irrigated cropland to desert-like land with a drop of agricultural activity of 10% or more”. To put this as simple as possible desertification is turning usable soil into desert. Dissertation is hard to observe but over time