The human impact on the environment is such a vast topic that it certainly cannot be fully covered in one blog post. Besides, this blog is meant to focus on one type of impact — that of synthetic wastes — and explore ways in which design ingenuity and resourcefulness can mitigate it. But before this focus can be sharpened, I felt I should make some attempt at a general overview of human activities that alter our one and only planet for the worse. In searching for an organizing principle, I realized that such activities can be put into two fundamental categories: taking and dumping.
TAKING
Deforestation
Deforestation is perhaps the most conspicuous way in which humans negatively impact the environment. Caused by the lumber industry and urbanization, among other factors, deforestation endangers biodiversity and increases the likelihood of forest fires. The cutting down of trees often results in the destruction of animal habitats — especially arboreal — leading to a breakdown of an ecosystem’s balance of species. For example, extreme cases of deforestation leave only a single species to dominate a whole ecosystem. Obviously, deforestation also weakens forests’ capacity to act as greenhouse gas filters. According to the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), an additional 200 billion tons of greenhouse gases will be emitted back into the air solely due to deforestation in the next decade.
Energy industry
The energy industry is also a leading cause of environmental damage. With the advent of the steam engine, fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, have taken center stage in humanity’s energy production and consumption. Yet, the acquisition of such energy resources have proven to be more than pernicious to the environment. The extraction and combustion of coal releases a vast amount of pollutants, and is known to be the greatest contributor to pollution. Some may argue that coal and petroleum are obsolete, and that cleaner energy resources like natural gas are well-poised to replace them. Yet, fracking– the process of extracting natural gas– releases toxins and may cause unusual seismic behavior.
Food production Overfishing has reduced not only the total population of marine life, but also altered the balance between different species as a result of the absence of large predators. On land, agricultural production and animal husbandry have taken their various tolls. It is quite well-known that enteric fermentation of bovine species (i.e. farting cattle) constitutes the bulk — specifically 27 percent — of the world’s methane emissions. Agriculture also requires a lot of irrigation.When irrigation affects the volume of river water flowing downstream or of groundwater, as it often does, water table levels are also liable to change. This may lead to drastically changed soil salinity levels, which will in turn adversely affect plant growth. All of the above effects have been exacerbated by overpopulation, as well as mankind’s increasing tendency toward overconsumption.
DUMPING
Industrial activity
There is by now common knowledge that industrial activity is a major cause of various kinds of damage to the environment. Even now, after eco-friendly operation methods have been invented, corporations often forgo them in favor of comparatively cheaper but environmentally more damaging options. Much of the damage is done by the byproducts of industrial production, which are released into the environment. Toxic material dumped into water, such as methylmercury and nitrate, have caused Minamata disease and Blue Baby syndrome, respectively. Chief among air pollutants are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and carbon dioxide (CO2), the first of which destroys the ozone layer, which acts as protection against the sun’s carcinogenic ultraviolet rays. CFC is especially harmful for the covalent bonds between the atoms that constitute it. These bonds boost the absorption of infrared light into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. As for CO2, it’s one of a group of substances called greenhouse gases, which, as their name suggests, trap heat within the Earth’s atmosphere and cause global temperatures to rise.
Transportation
Roads infringe upon the natural habitats of wildlife animals, endangering biodiversity and disrupting the food chain. Also, transportation pollute in a variety of ways. As many already know, cars, planes, and ships emit greenhouse gases, harmful both to the environment and humanity. Furthermore, aviation and maritime transport cause immense noise, disrupting the natural habitats of various species. Animals are also killed by accidentally colliding into cars or airplanes. Although efforts to develop eco-friendly transportation are being made, there is still a long way to go before such alternatives will gain the efficiency, convenience, and affordability necessary for the majority of people to adopt them.
Dumping of synthetic products
Since modern usages of petroleum were invented, the dumping of petrol-based synthetic products began to emerge as a grave threat to the environment. Ranked as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO), plastic, especially, takes an impossibly long time to decompose and poses grave health threats to people and to wildlife. Plastic products are known to be a particular danger to marine animals, which often perceive plastic as prey, and swallow them to suffocation or internal bleeding. Seabirds, which prey on the marine animals, are then affected, and so on up the food chain. Even worse, efforts to deal with plastic waste have been futile; burning it or burying it has proven to be no good, as both methods release carbon and methane into the atmosphere.
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