ENVIROMENTAL DEGRDATION AND IT'S IMPACT.

Environmental Degradation and Its Impact

Environmental Degradation and Its Impact

Introduction

Human beings are part of the global biological community. As all other life-forms do on the planet, humans interact with their environment. Characteristics of the biosphere influence the way humans live, and conversely, humans affect the environment in which they live. The Earth supplies materials, water, food, and energy humans need not only for basic survival but also for the sake of convenience and entertainment. While the degree to which humans are responsible for leaving the planet in the same condition as they found it is a matter of ethics, the effect that human activities have on the Earth's ecosystems is a matter of science.

Discussion

Change is natural. Life-forms evolve in response to specific environmental factors, but the environment also changes. At this moment geological processes are eroding mountain ranges and laying new crust on the ocean floor (Metz, Hine, 2002). The chemical composition of the atmosphere and the physical conditions on Earth's surface are vastly different from those when the planet formed 4.5 billion years ago.

A few serious current environmental concerns include the degradation of land, a diminishing clean water supply, depletion of nonrenewable energy sources, and increased pollution. Many environmental issues are interconnected; for example, in order to plant more crops farmers may clear forests, destroying habitats and leading to decreased biodiversity and removing vegetation that helps remove carbon dioxide, which is considered a form of air pollution, from the atmosphere (Mani, 2010).

Land Degradation

Land degradation is a decrease in a land's ability to absorb, store, and recycle water, energy, and nutrients. Natural phenomena such as hurricanes and earthquakes can destroy regions of land, but human activities can have a greater effect. The forest and grassland biomes provide society with food and with land for growing crops, grazing cattle and sheep, providing fiber for clothing and wood that is used for numerous purposes including construction, fuel, and papermaking. In addition to these and other material resources, forests and grasslands perform numerous ecosystem services, such as fixing carbon and producing oxygen via photosynthesis, recycling chemical elements, preventing soil erosion, regulating climate, and providing shade and shelter for thousands of species of animals, plants, and microorganisms (Metz, Hine, 2002). The biological health of these lands is deteriorating. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme) reports that dry lands make up 41 percent of the planet's land surfaces, and up to 20 percent of that has become unusable as a result of desertification, the conversion of land into desert.

A schematic showing some of the proximate and ultimate causes of land degradation

Water Resources

All life-forms require water. The availability of a clean water supply determines the distribution of different types of living organisms, migratory patterns of animals, and the locations of cities and human populations. Physical and geological factors drive water through the hydrological cycle, in which water evaporates from water bodies, soil, and plant leaves and rises into the atmosphere, where it affects weather patterns and forms clouds, ...