Human Impact on the Environment
In our biology course we worked on a project dealing with the human impact on the environment. The focus was on the so called environmental factors (water, soil, temperature). In groups we worked on these aspects and summarized the key facts and the most important aspects for the presentation and the poster.
A number of forces continue to seriously influence our natural water resources. Many of these are primarily the result of human actions and include ecosystem and landscape changes, sedimentation, pollution, over-abstraction and climate change. The removal, destruction or impairment of natural ecosystems are among the greatest causes of critical impacts on the sustainability of our natural water resources.
The soil is one of the most important abiotic factor; it carries all the nutrients plants need to grow and survive. It’s a big support for the plant too, so that the roots can hold it. It’s even a habit for smaller mammals and insects
Because plants are so dependent on the soil, it causes major problems if it gets changed by humans. Many farmers harm the environment by agriculture. (*Bild) Salinization, which means that the soil is too salty for growing land plants, can also be brought on by agriculture. In poorer and dryer regions, like in Africa, farmers use subsurface water, which contains a lot of water to irrigate their plantations . They aren’t educated enough to know how drastic the consequences are: The soil can’t be used for anything. No plants can grow and no houses can be built, because the soil gets so solid. Salinization is irreversible and it’s unknown if the environment can recover. The only thing we can do, is preventing it from happening.
(*Bild: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salinity.jpg#mw-jump-to-license)
Humans influence the temperature in many different ways. Factories, Coal Power Plants and cars pollute the air. In some cities there is so much smog in the air, that going outside of the house is dangerous for the health of the people. In addition greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or methane are produced. These greenhouse gases cause a global warming. Deforestation influences the global warming too.
Humans could reduce their impact on temperature by using renewable energy. If we don´t use the Coal Power Plants, we would produce less greenhouse gases and slow down the global warming. If people walk or use their bikes instead of using a car the production of greenhouse gases and the air pollution would be reduced. Another way to reduce our impact on temperature is to stop deforestation.
We also tried to come up with possible solutions to the human caused problems and included them in the presentations.