the role of human activities in changing the surface of the earth seminar introduction
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Human impact on the Earth's surfaceThe topic of humans and their impact on the Earth's surface is one that I chose because of its particular interest to me and my deep concern over it. It is quite disturbing to me that we are taking the natural resources we have and destroying them and/or using them as if there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately, there is a tomorrow, and it's almost here. We are beginning to see signs of the problems to come in that we are running out of energy supplies, ozone, fossil fuels, and landfill space. The following is a summary taken from Pickering, Kevin T. and Owen, Lewis A. an introduction to global environmental issues. "Human impact on the Earth's surface" New York: Routledge, 1994. You are encouraged to pursue highlighted links to other places on the World Wide Web, if that particular topic interests you.
The population of the Earth is continuing to increase. With this increasing population, more and more people are depleting and exhausting) what little resources exist. Uncontrolled and excessive use of the natural resources of our world has only created problems for its inhabitants. While there are many examples of man's influence over the natural environment, most of them can be divided into four main categories: exploitation of vegetation, soils, oceans, and landscape resources.
Vegetation
The impact humans can have on the vegetation of the Earth is very important because vegetation is a source of food for the world. However, vegetation is also important as a building material, in manufacturing industries, as a fuel, and as medicine. It wasn't until humans began widespread harvesting of this vegetation that the Earth began to show a negative impact from this change.
The most obvious way that humans impact vegetation is by burning it, both intentionally and accidentally. While fires do occur naturally, those generated by humans can harm the environment by causing danger to animals, properties, and themselves. Long term effects of fire are: clearance of vegetation, soil erosion, flooding, and wind erosion. Small fires only cause limited damage, but repeated, unnatural burning of areas can cause the vegetation to lose its ability to regenerate itself.
Perhaps one of the most publicized ways to destroy the world's vegetation is through deforestation. Humans have been cutting down forests for many years and for many reasons. The most alarming rate of destruction is occurring in the tropical rain forest, where an acre is removed every second. At this rate, the inevitable loss of the rain forest and its ecosystem would disrupt nutrient cycles, especially the oxygen and carbon dioxide cycles. A loss in rain forest would also cause erosion, flooding, and ultimately a loss in biodiversity. Logging is a universal problem, not only affecting the rain forests. Forests are being degraded by loggers taking the best trees, then coming back for more timber before the tree have had a chance to regenerate. Laws governing the maximum acceptable damage to logged forests through selected cuts are hard to enforce as loggers select the trees they want to take and leaves the weak trees for antoher day. By exporting trees to other countries,it is hard for one nation to control how much of its wood is being "chopped". International legislation might be the only way to save the deciduous, boreal, and tropical rain forests that remain.
The population of the Earth is continuing to increase. With this increasing population, more and more people are depleting and exhausting) what little resources exist. Uncontrolled and excessive use of the natural resources of our world has only created problems for its inhabitants. While there are many examples of man's influence over the natural environment, most of them can be divided into four main categories: exploitation of vegetation, soils, oceans, and landscape resources.
Vegetation
The impact humans can have on the vegetation of the Earth is very important because vegetation is a source of food for the world. However, vegetation is also important as a building material, in manufacturing industries, as a fuel, and as medicine. It wasn't until humans began widespread harvesting of this vegetation that the Earth began to show a negative impact from this change.
The most obvious way that humans impact vegetation is by burning it, both intentionally and accidentally. While fires do occur naturally, those generated by humans can harm the environment by causing danger to animals, properties, and themselves. Long term effects of fire are: clearance of vegetation, soil erosion, flooding, and wind erosion. Small fires only cause limited damage, but repeated, unnatural burning of areas can cause the vegetation to lose its ability to regenerate itself.
Perhaps one of the most publicized ways to destroy the world's vegetation is through deforestation. Humans have been cutting down forests for many years and for many reasons. The most alarming rate of destruction is occurring in the tropical rain forest, where an acre is removed every second. At this rate, the inevitable loss of the rain forest and its ecosystem would disrupt nutrient cycles, especially the oxygen and carbon dioxide cycles. A loss in rain forest would also cause erosion, flooding, and ultimately a loss in biodiversity. Logging is a universal problem, not only affecting the rain forests. Forests are being degraded by loggers taking the best trees, then coming back for more timber before the tree have had a chance to regenerate. Laws governing the maximum acceptable damage to logged forests through selected cuts are hard to enforce as loggers select the trees they want to take and leaves the weak trees for antoher day. By exporting trees to other countries,it is hard for one nation to control how much of its wood is being "chopped". International legislation might be the only way to save the deciduous, boreal, and tropical rain forests that remain.
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