Main Impacts Of The Human Population On Our Environment

Have you ever wondered about the impact we, as humans, generate on our environment? According to National Geographic humans impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. These negative impacts can affect human behavior and can prompt mass migrations or battles over clean water in the years to come.  Today we’re going to talk you through the most important factors that are affecting our planet so we realize the size of the problem we face and become a little more conscious in our daily life decisions.

Overpopulation

Let’s start with one of the biggest problems we’re facing nowadays, overpopulation. According to Interesting Engineering overpopulation is defined as a condition where the number of humans in an area, often a country or continent, is too high for the planet and its available resources to sustain them. Over the past years, the population has grown significantly, due to advances in medicine and new technologies. People have prolonged their lifespan, increasing the total population in the world. The effects of overpopulation are quite severe, with one of the most being the degradation of the environment and ecosystems. People require space to live and when we see overpopulation there aren’t enough trees to filter the air, CO₂ levels increase, and over-consumption of resources (land, water, food, air, fossil fuels, minerals) lead to severe consequences. This results in a severe threat to wildlife, forest depletion, pollutants and so much more. Our planet can only sustain so much damage until it will begin to damage us.

Pollution

Pollution is everywhere around us and it can take many forms, from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soils we use to grow our food in. Pollution is defined as harmful substances or products that are in the environment, particularly a contaminant or toxin, that produce some kind of a negative or harmful impact on the environment or living things. From the trash we throw in the street to the runoff produced by factories, pollutants damage the quality of air, water, and land. One of the greatest problems that the world is facing today is that of environmental pollution, which is causing grave and irreparable damage to the natural world and human society. We are continuously polluting indispensable natural resources which require millions of years to replenish.

Global Warming

We’ve all heard about this term, but do we really understand it? Let’s define what it is; according to Nasa global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. It is most commonly measured as the average increase in Earth’s global surface temperature. Global warming is mainly caused by overconsumption, generating power, cutting down forests, using transportation, producing food, etc. That is why we need to be super conscious about everything we consume and try to be as sustainable as possible! Global warming is bringing horrible consequences to our environment and our health. Let’s take care of us and our planet!

Deforestation

Last but not least we have deforestation, deforestation refers to the decrease in forest areas around the world that are lost for other uses such as agricultural croplands, urbanization, or mining activities. In the past years, this process has been accelerated due to human activities affecting natural ecosystems and biodiversity. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the expansion of agriculture caused nearly 80% of global deforestation, with the construction of infrastructures such as roads or dams, together with mining activities and urbanization, making up the remaining causes of deforestation. The loss of trees and other vegetation can cause climate change, desertification, soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and a lot of problems for indigenous people. 

It is very important that we become aware of what is happening to our planet and all the things that cause it. As a society, we need to support each other and the Earth we live on in order to leave a better world for future generations. The time to act is now, we can all make small changes in our daily lives in order to help the planet and all the beauty it contains.