Production and Consumption

A larger human population means a greater environmental impact on our planet. Indeed, more people create an increase demand for food, fuel, water, and minerals, all of which cause some environmental impact during their production (Turk, J., & Bensel, T. 2011). There are some things that humans do such as pollution, deforestation, urban sprawl and development that have an adverse effect on any living organism. These things can cause destruction of the habitat of the organisms and then it could lead to extinction. Pollution can destroy freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Destroying the ecosystem can affect the living organisms and humans in many ways. Ecosystems provide clean air to breathe, infiltrates water so there is clean water to drink, and recycles garbage. They are also a good source of shelter, food, and medicines. Destruction of the ecosystem has an effect on our economy and the health of humans.

One production habit humans have is the production of new housing. This is related to material resources. Turk and Bensel goes into detail of the effects of "sprawl", and how this sprawl affects the environment around us. Sprawl can be defined as the spreading of urban and suburban areas into undeveloped lands (Turk, J., & Bensel). With sprawl more kinds of land, water, and air pollutions will happen due to the change of porous lands, to a concrete type foundations that cover the land. Water becomes affected by this production of concrete foundations over previously porous lands makes water that would normally absorb into the ground and filter to streams and rivers slowly through to ground to "run-off" on the pavement more quickly to these streams and rivers. While it runs off the pavement it is picking up pollutants that would normally not be present if it were channeled through the ground, and dumping it all directly into our waterways. Another water problem caused by this is flooding. Being that the run-off water is making its way to the streams and rivers at a much higher rate, it is cause them to flood much more frequently. As far as land goes, we are losing much prime farmland to sprawl. Turk and Bensel even goes so far to state that sprawl could even be affecting health of human beings negatively, as we tend to have lower blood pressure and other positive health affects while surrounded by farmland and vegetation, but being in city environments reverses these positive effects.

Another production method is deforestation. Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land (Anonymous 2012). There are many reasons why forests are cut down either to provide for your family or for money. There are many television shows like Ax Men. That is their job. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Not all deforestation is intentional.