What is Environmental Degradation?
Environmental degradation is the disintegration of the earth or deterioration of the environment through consumption of assets, for example, air, water and soil; the destruction of environments and the eradication of wildlife. It is characterized as any change or aggravation to nature’s turf seen to be pernicious or undesirable. Ecological effect or degradation is created by the consolidation of an effectively substantial and expanding human populace, constantly expanding monetary development or per capita fortune and the application of asset exhausting and polluting technology. It occurs when earth’s natural resources are depleted and environment is compromised in the form of extinction of species, pollution in air, water and soil, and rapid growth in population.
It is a process wherein the natural environment of the planet is degenerated to an extent that the biodiversity and general health of the planet is subjected to drastic reduction. In other words, it can be defined as deterioration of the Earth's natural surroundings as a result of excessive exploitation of the available resources, like water, air, flora, fauna, soil, etc. The life on the planet is interwoven to such an extent that a decrease in a particular attribute triggers a domino effect on all the other attributes dependent on it.
Environmental degradation is one of the largest threats that are being looked at in the world today. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction characterizes environmental degradation as the lessening of the limit of the earth to meet social and environmental destinations, and needs. Environmental degradation can happen in a number of ways. At the point when environments are wrecked or common assets are exhausted, the environment is considered to be corrupted and harmed. There are a number of different techniques that are being used to prevent this, including environmental resource protection and general protection efforts.
One of the major threats the planet is facing today, environmental degradation is bound to make life difficult for all life forms, including us humans, sooner or later. Studies reveal that the deterioration of environment is occurring at an alarming rate. In fact, the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations has enlisted it as one of the ten threats for humans. This issue shares space with problems like poverty, terrorism, and civil war, which, in itself, highlights the fact that we are heading for a certain disaster.
Environmental issues can be seen by long term ecological effects, some of which can demolish whole environments. An environment is a unique unit and incorporates all the living and nonliving components that live inside it. Plants and creatures are evident parts of the environment, but it also includes the things on which they depend on, for example, streams, lakes, and soils.
Environmental surroundings get to be divided when technological advancement splits up areas of land. Some examples of this can include streets which may slice through woods or even trails which wind through prairies. While it may not sound all terrible on the surface, there are bad results. The biggest of these results are felt by particular animal and plant groups, the vast majority of which are specific for their bio-region or need a large area in order to make sure that their genetic lines are kept intact.
Causes of Environmental Degradation
Some environmental life species require substantial areas to help provide food, living space, and other different assets. These creatures are called area specific. At the point when the biome is divided, the vast patches of living space don’t exist anymore. It gets to be more troublesome for the wildlife to get the assets they need in order to survive. The environment goes on, even though the animals and plant life are not there to help sustain it properly.
Environmental degradation can be attributed to various human activities and some natural processes, with the latter having an insignificant share in the same. Most of the resources on the planet are vulnerable to depletion, and the rate at which we are exploiting them, has already brought some of them to the brink of exhaustion. Exploitation of fossil fuels is the best example of this phenomenon. Large-scale exploitation has depleted the fossil fuel reserves across the world, thus leaving us with no option, but to find an alternate source of energy. Other human activities which have been contributing to this environmental issue include urbanization, overpopulation, deforestation, pollution, hunting, etc.
1. Overpopulation and Over-exploitation of Resources:
As the human population keeps on increasing, there is a lot of pressure on the utilization of natural resources. This causes over-exploitation of the natural resources, and contributes to environmental erosion. According to a study by the UNEP Global Environment Outlook, excessive human consumption of the naturally occurring non-renewable resources can outstrip available resources in the near future and remarkably destroys the environment during extraction and utilization. Overpopulation simply means more pollution and fast extraction of natural resources compared to how they are being replaced.
2. Ruinous Agricultural Practices:
Intensive agricultural practices have led to the decline in quality of most of our natural environments. Majority of farmers resort to converting forests and grasslands to croplands which reduces the quality of natural forests and vegetation cover. The pressure to convert lands into resource areas for producing priced foods, crops, and livestock rearing has increasingly led to the depreciation of natural environments such as forests, wildlife and fertile lands.
Intensive agricultural practices destroy fertile lands and nearby vegetation cover due to the accumulation of toxic substances like bad minerals and heavy metals which destroy the soil’s biological and chemical activities. Runoffs of agricultural wastes and chemical fertilizers and pesticides into marine and freshwater environments have also deteriorated the quality of wildlife habitats, natural water resources, wetlands and aquatic life.
3. Landfills:
One of the calamitous effects of landfills is the destruction of nearby environmental health together with its ecosystems. The landfills discharge various kinds of chemicals on the land adjacent to forest, various natural habitats, and water systems such as underground and surface water which makes the environment unappealing to the survival of trees, vegetations, animal and humans.
It even interferes with the animals interactive food chains because the chemicals contaminate plants, and waters which are consumed by the animals. Besides the foul smell from the landfills and periodic burning of the wastes make living in such environments unbearable.
4. Increase in Deforestation:
The act of deforestation (cutting down of trees) has impacted on the world in terms of depreciating the natural environment and wildlife. It has also impacted on humans on the account of changes in environmental support processes such as weather conditions. Some of the reasons for deforestation include farming, construction, settlement, mining, or other economic purposes. For more than one hundred years, the number of trees on the planet has plummeted, resulting in devastating consequences such as biodiversity loss, soil erosion, species extinction, global warming, and interference with the water cycle.
5. Environmental Pollution:
Most of the planet’s natural environments have been destroyed and a large portion is under huge threat due to the toxic substances and chemicals emitted from fossil fuel combustions, industrial wastes, and homemade utilities among other industry processed materials such as plastics. Land, air, and water pollution pose long-term cumulative impacts on the quality of the natural environments in which they occur.
Seriously polluted environments have become insignificant in value because pollution makes it harsh for the sustainably of biotic and abiotic components. Pollution impacts the chemical compositions of lands, soil, ocean water, underground water and rocks, and other natural processes. Air pollution from automobiles and industries that results in the formation of acid rain which in turn brings about acidic lake is a good example of how the environment is degraded by pollution.
6. Improper Land use Planning and Development:
The unplanned conversion of lands into urban settings, mining areas, housing development projects, office spaces, shopping malls, industrial sites, parking areas, road networks, and so on leads to environmental pollution and degradation of natural habitats and ecosystems. Mining and oil exploration, for instance, renders land unusable for habitation and causes other forms of environmental degradation by releasing toxic materials into the environment. Improper land use has led to the loss and destruction of millions of acre of natural environments across the globe.
7. Natural Causes:
Despite the fact that environmental degradation is under normal circumstances associated with anthropogenic activities, natural causes are also contributors. Natural events such as wildfires, hurricanes, landslides, tsunamis and earthquakes can totally lower the survival grade of local animal communities and plant life in a region. These disasters can also destroy alter the nature of the landscape rendering it unable to support life forms on it. Besides, occurrences such as hurricanes and flooding can wash or force the migration of invasive species into foreign environments which can lead to its eventual degradation.
