How man destroys nature. How man destroys the environment
It's like footage from a disaster movie about the end of the world...
Everyone knows that human activities have a bad impact on the environment. But few can correctly imagine the scale of the harm we cause to nature. These photos will show you the problem as it really is.
When you see the consequences of deforestation or oil puddles in the ocean, you feel somehow uneasy. We have failed to wisely take advantage of the wealth that our planet has so generously given us. Today's deplorable state of the environment should finally bring some sense to us... After all, every person can help nature, at least by stopping harming it.
1. Melting glaciers in Norway.
2. Perhaps the Maldives will soon go under water, as the water level in the ocean is rising by leaps and bounds.
3. Parade in Germany. Looking at the crowds at such events, you realize how densely populated the world's major cities are.
4. Diamond mining site, Russia.
5. Surfer and wave of garbage, Indonesia.
6. Consequences of deforestation in Canada.
7. There are countless shipping containers in the port of Singapore.
8. An oil slick caught fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
9. Coal power stations in the UK
10. This is what a densely populated area in Mexico City, Mexico looks like. There is no trace left of nature...
Share these shocking images with your friends and remember to be mindful of your behavior towards the environment. Remember that even at the local level, a small change for the better can make a big difference! In any case, I want to believe that humanity will someday learn to live in harmony with nature...
Man is the main enemy of the planet - the place where he lives, he himself turns into a huge waste dump. It's unfortunate, but true! Ecologists have long been trying to appeal to the human mind by annually publishing materials about the damage people cause to the Earth, however, few people listen to the “greens”. Let's take a look at the scale of the world's pollution problem!
1. Just imagine: every year the world’s oceans receive a “gift” from humans - 6 billion kilograms of garbage. And most of this garbage is . Toxic and non-degradable, it destroys marine life. As an example, in the US alone, 3 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour. Each discarded bottle takes 500 years to decompose.
2. It’s no secret that oil spills that occur due to tanker accidents or on oil platforms become fatal for ocean inhabitants, as well as for people. But few people know that without any accidents, for every million tons of oil shipped, there is always one ton spilled.
3. As for air purity, today there are more than 500 million cars in the world. Experts estimate that by 2030 this figure will increase to more than a billion! This means that in just 13 years, air pollution will double. By the way, it is considered one of the countries with the highest level of air pollution in the world. In Beijing, pollution has reached such a level that it is comparable to the 21st cigarette smoked a day.
4. Electronic ones have also become a pressing problem. For a couple of decades, this problem was not acute, but now, when technology: computers, televisions, mobile phones is becoming more accessible to consumers, even with low incomes, the situation is beginning to worsen. For example, in 2012 alone, people threw away almost 50 million tons of electronic waste.
5. Few people have heard of light pollution except ornithologists and scientists. This is understandable - this type of pollution has almost no effect on people, but on birds it does. So, due to bright electric illumination, birds confuse days and nights, but this is not the main thing, scientists have found that light pollution can even change the migration pattern of some animal species.
6. According to scientific research, every eighth death in the world is somehow related to air pollution.
Just these five points show that our planet is in danger, and the sixth point shows that people harm themselves by forcing themselves to survive in conditions of anthropogenic pollution
The relationship between people and nature has always been quite complex - man sought to subjugate it, use it for his needs and change it in every possible way. Today everyone is talking about the negative consequences of global warming, but this is far from the only example of how human civilization and nature influence each other.
1. A warming climate contributes to violence.
Many scientific studies over several decades have consistently suggested that the rate of violent crime always increases as one approaches the equator, that is, as the climate becomes hotter. But none of these studies have been able to determine why this is so. There are two main theories. First, hot weather makes people uncomfortable and irritable, and therefore more violent.
Second, in warm weather people are outdoors more often and interact more actively, meaning there are more opportunities for violent conflict. But researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam believe that it is not so much the heat that is to blame for this behavior, but rather a slight change in temperature in these regions.
Without having to plan for upcoming seasons, people can focus on the present without worrying so much about the future. This “living one day at a time” strategy can lead to decreased self-control and thus an increase in acts of violence.
2. Light pollution causes early spring in cities
Light pollution caused by excess artificial lighting can actually be destructive to natural ecosystems. Over time, bright lights in cities gradually “deceive” the surrounding trees and plants, which begin to “believe” that spring has come earlier.
In a 12-year study of four different tree species, British scientists found that in large cities with plenty of nighttime lighting, trees budted a week earlier than similar species in rural areas. This has a natural multiplier effect on the surrounding ecosystem, causing disruptions in pollination cycles and bird and bee populations.
3. Cigarette butts are a threat to marine life
Of the billions of cigarette butts produced each year, only a fraction are disposed of correctly. An insane amount of them end up in the ocean. In fact, cigarette butts are the most common type of litter in the world's oceans. They are made up of thousands of tiny plastic particles woven into a fiber that breaks down in the ocean environment.
One study found that the hazardous materials contained in one cigarette butt could sufficiently contaminate 1 liter of water to kill any fish in that water.
4. People and evolution
Hunting, human encroachment on animals' natural habitats, and other environmental changes have contributed to the extinction of thousands of species over the centuries. But some human behavior patterns can ultimately lead to the emergence of new species that would not have appeared otherwise. For example, in London there are underground mosquitoes whose DNA and breeding habits are different from ordinary mosquitoes.
They came from insects that escaped into artificial underground tunnels during the bombing of World War II. Since they are no longer able to reproduce with other mosquitoes, these mosquitoes are a separate species that was actually created by humans.
5. Nature improves mental health
In 2013, a study conducted by the University of Essex found that clinical rates of depression decreased markedly (by 71 percent) in people who took at least a short walk in nature every day. These results stand in stark contrast to the control group, whose participants walked once a day to the mall. Their depression levels dropped by 45 percent, while 22 percent actually felt more depressed.
In addition, adolescents living within 1 km of green spaces experienced a decrease in aggressive behavior. Either way, the study's authors came to a rather specific conclusion: increasing green space in urban areas could lead to a 12 percent reduction in violent and aggressive behavior among adolescents.
6. Increased vegetation growth
Melting glaciers and the gradual disappearance of long-standing ice shelves caused by global climate change have produced an unexpected secondary effect. In many places where the ice has retreated, greenery has appeared in its place.
This decades-long trend was noted by NASA using satellite imagery. In addition to retreating ice and rising temperatures, another factor is believed to be an increase in the amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere, which plants love.
7. Poor people in green areas get sick less often
Scientists from the University of Glasgow conducted a study that substantiated the theory that exposure to nature is beneficial for people. After excluding diseases such as lung cancer, circulatory diseases, and deliberate self-harm, the scientists decided to survey the entire working population of England to determine whether there was a pattern of health status among people who could not afford health care living near green spaces.
It turned out that people who live near greenery are actually healthier, even if they don’t visit doctors at all.
8. Mothers who live close to nature give birth to large children.
Ben Gurion University researchers noted in 2014 that mothers in greener areas tend to give birth to children with a much higher average body weight. The study also found that a much lower birth weight puts the baby at risk for a host of lifelong health problems.
It has been found that low birth weight is commonly found in economically underdeveloped areas with minimal green space.
9. Roads can have a positive impact on nature
Despite the fact that roads are vital to the infrastructure of any society, environmentalists actively protest against their construction. In fact, in 2013, Cambridge University professor Andrew Balmford suggested that building roads or improving existing roads in some areas could benefit surrounding areas.
Particularly in underdeveloped areas suitable for agriculture, roads clearly help preserve vulnerable plant and animal species because people simply “stay away from them.”
10. Animals adapt to human presence
During the Industrial Revolution and as a result of the human population explosion, there was a clear effect on the diversity of animal species. Hunting and fishing, despite changes in habitat and migration patterns, have had a negative impact on many species, but not all. Some have adapted to thrive in the presence of humans, and studying how they managed to do this may be key to mitigating the effect of future population growth.
Chipmunks and crows, for example, have completely changed their diet to adapt to city life. Many endangered birds have taken up residence on the flat roofs of shopping malls.
The nature of our planet is very diverse and inhabited by unique species of plants, animals, birds and microorganisms. All this diversity is closely interconnected and allows our planet to maintain and maintain a unique balance between different forms of life.
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Human impact on the environment
From the very first days of man's appearance, he began to influence the environment. And with the invention of more and more new tools, human civilization has increased its impact to truly enormous proportions. And at present, several important questions have arisen before humanity: how does man influence nature? What human actions harm the soil that provides us with our staple foods? What is the influence of man on the atmosphere we breathe?
Currently, man’s impact on the world around him not only contributes to the development of our civilization, but also often leads to the fact that the appearance of the planet undergoes significant changes: rivers are drained and dry up, forests are cut down, new cities and factories appear in place of plains, to please new transport routes destroy mountains.
With the rapid increase in the Earth's population, humanity requires more and more food, and with the rapid growth of production technologies, the production capacity of our civilization is also growing, requiring more and more new resources for processing and consumption, and the development of more and more new territories.
Cities are growing, seizing more and more land from nature and displacing their natural inhabitants: plants and animals.
This is interesting: in the chest?
Main reasons
The reasons for the negative impact of humans on nature are:
All these factors have a significant and sometimes irreversible impact on the world around us. And more and more often a person is faced with the question: what consequences will such influence ultimately lead to? Will we eventually turn our planet into a waterless desert, unsuitable for existence? How can a person minimize the negative consequences of his influence on the world around him? The contradictory impact of people on the natural environment is now becoming a subject of discussion at the international level.
Negative and contradictory factors
In addition to the obvious positive impact of humans on the environment, there are also significant disadvantages of such interaction:
- Destruction of large areas of forests by cutting them down. This influence is associated, first of all, with the development of the transport industry - people require more and more highways. In addition, wood is actively used in the paper industry and other industries.
- Wide use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture actively contributes to rapid soil pollution.
- Widely developed network of industrial production with its own emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere and water They not only cause environmental pollution, but also contribute to the death of entire species of fish, birds and plants.
- Rapidly growing cities and industrial centers significantly affect changes in the external living conditions of animals, a reduction in their natural habitat and a reduction in the populations of various species themselves.
Also, one cannot ignore man-made disasters that can cause irreversible harm not just to an individual species of flora or fauna, but to entire areas of the planet. For example, after the famous accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, to this day a large area of Ukraine is uninhabitable. The radiation level in this area exceeds the maximum permissible standards by tens of times.
Also, a leak of radiation-contaminated water from a nuclear power plant reactor in the city of Fukushima could lead to an environmental disaster on a global scale. The damage that this heavy contaminated water could cause to the ecological system of the world's oceans would be simply irreparable.
And the construction of conventional hydroelectric power plants causes no less harm to the environment. After all, their construction requires the construction of a dam and the flooding of a large area of adjacent fields and forests. As a result of such human activity, not only the river and the surrounding areas suffer, but also the wildlife living in these areas.
In addition, many people thoughtlessly throw away garbage, polluting not only the soil, but also the waters of the world’s oceans with their waste. After all, light debris does not sink and remains on the surface of the water. And given that some types of plastic take more than a decade to decompose, such floating “islands of dirt” make it much more difficult for marine and river life to obtain oxygen and sunlight. Therefore, entire populations of fish and animals have to migrate in search of new, more suitable territories. And many of them die in the search process.
Deforestation on mountain slopes makes them susceptible to erosion; as a result, the soil becomes loose, which can lead to destruction of the mountain range.
And people treat vital supplies of fresh water negligently - daily polluting freshwater rivers with sewage and industrial waste.
Of course, the existence of humans on the planet brings considerable benefits to it. In particular, it is people who carry out activities aimed at improving the ecological situation in the environment. On the territory of many countries, people organize nature reserves, parks and sanctuaries, which allow not only to preserve the surrounding nature in its natural, pristine form, but also contribute to the preservation and increase in populations of rare and endangered species of animals and birds.
Special laws have been created to protect rare representatives of the nature around us from destruction. There are special services, funds and centers that fight the destruction of animals and birds. Specialized associations of ecologists are also being created, whose task is to fight to reduce emissions into the atmosphere that are harmful to the environment.
Security organizations
One of the most famous organizations fighting for nature conservation is Greenpease is an international organization, created to preserve the environment for our descendants. Greenpease employees set themselves several main tasks:
- Fighting ocean pollution.
- Significant restrictions on whaling.
- Reducing the scale of deforestation of taiga in Siberia and much more.
With the development of civilization, humanity must look for alternative sources of energy: solar or cosmic, to preserve life on Earth. The construction of new canals and artificial water systems aimed at maintaining soil fertility is also of great importance for preserving the nature around us. And to keep the air clean, many enterprises install specially designed filters to reduce the level of pollutants released into the atmosphere.
This reasonable and caring attitude towards the world around us clearly has only a positive impact on nature.
Every day the positive impact of man on nature is increasing, and this cannot but affect the ecology of our entire planet. That is why the human struggle for the preservation of rare species of flora and fauna and the preservation of rare plant species is so important.
Humanity has no right through its activities to disrupt the natural balance and lead to the depletion of natural resources. To do this, it is necessary to control the extraction of mineral resources, carefully monitor and take care of the fresh water reserves on our planet. And it is very important to remember that it is we who are responsible for the world around us and how our children and grandchildren will live depends on us!
Today, the sad truth is no longer a secret to anyone - our planet is in danger, and plants and animals have to survive in conditions of anthropogenic pollution. Even photographs that appear in the press from time to time are not able to convey the seriousness and scale of the pollution problem. This review contains little-known and shocking facts that make it possible to understand the seriousness of the problem.
1. 3 million plastic bottles
Earth
Every year, more than 6 billion kilograms of garbage are dumped into the world's oceans. Most of this trash is plastic, which is toxic to marine life. In America alone, 3 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour. But each such bottle decomposes within 500 years.
2. “Garbage Continent”
Pacific Ocean
Few people know this, but in the Pacific Ocean there is an entire “continent” of plastic waste known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. According to some estimates, the size of this plastic “garbage continent” could be twice the size of the United States.
3. 500 million cars
Earth
There are more than 500 million cars in the world today, and by 2030 this number is expected to rise to more than a billion. This means that pollution caused by cars could potentially double in 14 years.
4. 30% of the world's waste
USA
Americans make up only 5% of the world's population. At the same time, they produce 30% of the world's waste and use about a quarter of the world's natural resources.
5. Oil spills
World Ocean
Everyone knows that massive, deadly oil spills occur after accidents with tankers or drilling rigs. At the same time, it is practically unknown that for every million tons of oil shipped there is always one ton of spilled oil (and this without any accidents).
6. Clean Antarctica
Antarctica
The only relatively clean place on Earth is Antarctica. The continent is protected by the Antarctic Treaty, which prohibits military activity, mining, nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal.
7. Beijing air
China
China is one of the countries with the highest levels of air pollution in the world. Simply breathing the air in Beijing increases your risk of lung cancer by exactly the same amount as smoking 21 cigarettes a day. In addition, nearly 700 million Chinese (about half the country's population) are forced to drink contaminated water.
8. Ganges River
India
Water pollution is even worse in India, where nearly 80% of all urban waste is dumped into the Ganges River, the most sacred river of Hindus. Poor Indians also bury their dead family members in this river.
9. Lake Karachay
Russia
Lake Karachay, a radioactive waste dump from the former Soviet Union, located in the Chelyabinsk region, is the most contaminated place on Earth. If a person spends just an hour in this lake, he is guaranteed to die.
10. Electronic waste
Earth
As computers, televisions, mobile phones and other electronic devices become more and more accessible around the world, e-waste has been a growing problem in recent years. For example, in 2012 alone, people threw away almost 50 million tons of electronic waste.
11. A third of British fish change sex
England
Around a third of fish in British rivers change sex due to water pollution. Scientists believe that the main reason for this is hormones from waste in sewage, including birth control pills.
12. 80 thousand synthetic chemicals
Earth
In modern days, up to 500 chemicals have been discovered in the human body that were not present in it before 1920. Today, there are a total of almost 80 thousand synthetic chemicals on the market.
13. San Francisco gets air from China
Environmental problem: light pollution.
Earth
Light pollution generally does not have a significant effect on humans, but it causes serious problems for many animals. Birds often confuse day and night, and scientists have found that light pollution can even change the migration patterns of some animal species.
Today people are looking for various ways to make their lives safer and production more environmentally friendly. So, .