What have we done to the world

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Human Impact

We, as humans, use the Earth for a variety of reasons out of need and want. Unfortunately, through certain practices (as will be explained throughout this booklet) we have disrupted natural cycles, damaged environments beyond repair, and have aesthetically broken the planet we call home. Certain recreational, residential, and industrial practices have also destroyed wildlife habitats, and animals causing many to become extinct. As of late, humans have been negatively impacting the Earth, and here's how...

Agriculture:

(also called farming) is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life

Farmed areas – both on land and in the water – provide important habitats for many wild plants and animals. When farming operations are sustainably managed, they can help preserve and restore critical habitats, protect watersheds, and improve soil health and water quality. But when practiced without care, farming presents a great threat to species and ecosystems. Negative environmental impacts from unsustainable farming practices include:

Land conversion & habitat loss

Wasteful water consumption

Soil erosion and degradation

Pollution

Climate change

Genetic erosion

Pesticides-Chemicals designed to protect crops from parasites

Pesticides can runoff into streams or seep into the groundwater

Pesticides can harm organisms and offset food chains

Urbanization:

the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change

Upon the development of industries, and the growth of the practices of buying and selling, urbanization has boomed increasing populations, and decreasing living space. Urbanization also contributes to the destroying of natural areas reducing the beauty of an area. Rapid development can result in very high levels of erosion and sedimentation in river from chemical as well as bacterial pollution and waste. In North America, 70% of its people live in cities, and in the world by 2025 5 billion people will live in cities. While this does somewhat boost economies, it will call for the deforestation of rural areas to expand city limits. This comes with many consequences such as the loss of wildlife habitats, and agricultural areas

Deforestation

Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but areas the size of Panama are lost each and every year. The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation. Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as “slash and burn” agriculture. Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl. Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees. Deforestation also influences climate change as they play a part in the absorption of greenhouse gases, and transpiration in the water cycle. A workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting to make sure that forest environments remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced by the planting of enough young trees to replace the older ones felled in any given forest.

Population Growth:

An increase in the number of people that reside in state, county, or city

There are various reasons for population growth. The obvious reason is that there are more births than deaths. This is called natural increase. Another major reason is a result of people living longer and lower infant mortality. This is due to advances in medicine and healthier lifestyles. These are causes for celebration. We can be thankful that most people can live to see their grandchildren and that the vast majority of children survive through the formative years of their lives. Migration results in population changes at regional levels. Some nations, such as New Zealand, receive more migrants than they send, while others send more migrants than they receive.

Population 2050 (est.)

India: 1,705,332,544

China: 1,348,056,330

Nigeria: 398,507,704

USA: 388,864,747

Indonesia: 322,237,405

Pakistan: 309,639,865

Brazil: 238,270,379

Bangladesh: 202,209,053

Congo: DR 195,277,035

Ethiopia: 188,455,132

World: 9,725,147,994

Overgrazing:

graze (grassland) so heavily that the vegetation is damaged and the ground becomes liable to erosion.

Overgrazing can occur under continuous or rotational grazing. It can be caused by having too many animals on the farm or by not properly controlling their grazing activity. Overgrazing reduces plant leaf areas, which reduces interception of sunlight and plant growth. Plants become weakened and have reduced root length, and the pasture sod weakens. The reduced root length makes the plants more susceptible to death during dry weather. The weakened sod allows weed seeds to germinate and grow. If the weeds are unpalatable or poisonous, major problems can result. Overgrazing can also increase soil erosion. Reduced soil depth, soil organic matter, and soil fertility hurt the land's future productivity. Proper grazing management keeps pastures healthy and productive. This ensures that the livestock using the pastures are also healthy and productive.

Fracking:

the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.

Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well. The process can be carried out vertically or, more commonly, by drilling horizontally to the rock layer and can create new pathways to release gas or can be used to extend existing channels. The term fracking refers to how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture. Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as uranium, mercury, and methane. Fracking allows drilling firms to access difficult-to-reach resources of oil and gas. In the US it has significantly boosted domestic oil production and driven down gas prices. The extensive use of fracking in the US, where it has revolutionized the energy industry, has prompted environmental concerns. Fracking uses huge amounts of water, which must be transported to the fracking site, at significant environmental cost. Environmentalists say potentially carcinogenic chemicals used may escape and contaminate groundwater around the fracking site

Drilling

Seven ways oil and gas drilling is bad news for the environment

1. Disruption of wildlife migration routes and habitats from noise pollution, traffic and fences

2.Oil spills on land and offshore drilling sites-One oil production company in La Plata County, Colorado, spills drilling fluids so frequently, it’s currently hoping to reduce its number of reported spills to an occurrence every other day (160 spills per year!).

3.Landscape changes from well pads and roads

4.Oil and gas infrastructure and traffic spoil peaceful settings for visitors-Outdoor recreation and tourism are major economic engines for America’s local communities. But oil tanks, power poles, noisy compressors and a network of roads compromise scenic values and important sources of revenue for our local communities.

5. Haze, toxic chemicals and dust pollute the air and water-Open pits, ponds, and lagoons can contain wastewater, organic chemicals, petroleum hydrocarbons, surfactants and other substances which compromise the safety of our water. Pipeline explosions and wells (even if properly drilled) can cause drinking water problems by cross-contaminating aquifers.

6.Machinery, gas flares and light pollution disrupt scenic views and clear night skies

7. Dangerous methane emissions contribute to climate change-Methane, the main component in natural gas, is up to 84 times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, trapping heat more effectively and intensifying global warming. What is even more worrisome is that 21 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, can be traced to oil, gas and coal extracted from federal lands

Mining:

the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth

Mining is the compound of activity referred to explore, extract and process minerals from the earth. Minerals can be metals (like copper, gold, silver, iron, lead) or nonmetals (like coal, asbestos, gravel). Mines can have different size. There are mining operation who move less than 100 tons of rock each day, and there are big mining operation who move hundreds of thousandth of tons every day.

Mountainsides:

Mountaintop removal mining-Destructive form of surface mining that blasts away the tops of mountains to acquire resources

-Done in the Appalachian Mountains

-Massive transport trucks

-Burning coal for power releases pollutants

Natural Resources

Ever since the earth was inhabited, humans and other life forms have depended on things that exist freely in nature to survive. These things include water, land, soils, rocks, forests animals, fossil fuels and minerals. They are called Natural Resources and are the basis of life on earth. All these mentioned above are natural, and they exist in nature. No human created them. We tap into their supply to survive and also to function properly. Natural resources are all connected in a way. Therefore if one is taken away, it will affect the supply or quality of all others.

Raw materials

Sometimes, natural resources can be used as raw materials to produce something. For instance, we can use a tree from the forest to produce timber. The timber is then used to produce wood for furniture or pulp for paper and paper products. In this scenario, the tree is the raw material. Every item in your home was made from a raw material that came from a natural resource. Natural resources come in many forms. It may be a solid, liquid or gas. It may also be organic or inorganic. It may also be metallic or non-metallic. It may be renewable or non-renewable.

Renewable resources

Renewable resources are those that are constantly available (like water) or can be reasonably replaced or recovered, like vegetative lands. Even though some renewable resources can be replaced, they may take many years and that does not make them renewable. If renewable resources come from living things they can be called organic renewable resources. If renewable resources come from non-living things they can be called inorganic renewable resources.

Non-renewable resources

Non-renewable resources are those that cannot easily be replaced once they are destroyed. Examples include fossil fuels.

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What have we done to the world

Look what we've done...

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/afmnma6988q9

Human Impact

Agriculture:

(also called farming) is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life

Land conversion & habitat loss

Wasteful water consumption

Soil erosion and degradation

Pollution

Climate change

Genetic erosion

Pesticides-Chemicals designed to protect crops from parasites

Pesticides can runoff into streams or seep into the groundwater

Pesticides can harm organisms and offset food chains

Urbanization:

the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change

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"Human Impact"

CIECHS_STUDENT

The book discusses the human impact on Earth, covering topics like agriculture, urbanization, deforestation, population growth, overgrazing, fracking, drilling, mining, natural resources, alternative resources, extraction, harvesting, sustainability, and the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. It provides a comprehensive overview of environmental issues.

(19 pages)

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