Thoughts on Environment

Thoughts on Environment

Humans and the environment have a complex, and multifaceted relationship. Our ability to affect the environment increases as technology improves, both for the worse and for the better. Human actions have affected the environment in both a negative and a positive ways.

The negative ways in which humans have affected the environment is by causing Environmental degradation. Human action has caused the deterioration of the environment by decline of air, water and soil reserves; the devastation of ecosystems and the annihilation of wildlife. Air pollution has been caused by the fumes generated by cars, aero planes and factories. Use of non renewable energy like coal, gas and oil has resulted in emission of huge amounts of Carbon Dioxide and other harmful gases in the air. Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, Methane and other gases in the atmosphere have resulted in the formation of a hole in the protective ozone layer of the earth's atmosphere. Due to this, harmful ultra violet rays from the sun has entered the earth and caused innumerable health problems not only to humans but also plants and animals. Another effect of the rise of air pollution is the rise of Global warming. The rise in Global warming is expected to have long lasting effect on the world. (J., 2008)

Humans have also caused significant destruction of forests and natural ecosystems. The development of Agriculture by humans from ancient times has also resulted in destruction of large tracts of natural ecosystems. The natural rainforests of South America are constantly under threat of disappearance as they continue to be destroyed by humans for economic purposes. Another negative effect of Humans is the extinction of entire species of plants and animals throughout the earth. In the last few hundred years there has been an increase on destruction of wildlife caused by overkill, habitat destruction and impact of new species introduces in different regions. In fact, many species of living creatures have become endangered or extinct due to excessive hunting by humans, such as the bald eagle, the American buffalo, and the infamous Dodo bird and many species in the ocean. (J., 2008)

However, mankind has realized the effect that their actions have caused and has now taken several positive steps to reverse the trend. They have tried to take steps for the conservation of the remaining earth's resources. Their future objectives is to reduce air pollution by reducing consumption of non renewable fuels and the development of alternative renewable source of energy which do not emit so much harmful gases. This will hopefully reduce the new climatic change caused by global warming. They are trying for conservation a sustainable use of scarce resources like water and establishing nature and biosphere reserves to protect the ecosystem and the endangered species from