Currently, environmental degradation is one of the greatest threats to our planet. Environmental deterioration occurs due to various damages to the environment. The different factors that produce environmental deterioration are very varied and it is important to correctly identify them, to correct them and find solutions.
In this Green Ecologist article, we analyze the environmental deterioration: definition, causes and consequences.
The environment is an ecological unit that houses both living and non-living components, that is, biotic and abiotic, that inhabit it. Among the living components are plants and animals and among the non-living, we find soils, lakes, rivers, streams or air.
Environmental degradation is the loss of the environment's ability to meet needs social, biodiversity and environmental aspects of the earth. Environmental degradation occurs when the earth's natural resources are depleted or damaged and the environment is compromised.
The consequences of this deterioration are varied and can be the extinction of species, loss of biodiversity, loss of air quality, water pollution, soil erosion or increased greenhouse effect. While many of these effects are not visible in the short term, they are noticeable in the long term. It is for this reason that current actions may have an impact on environmental deterioration future.
The causes influencing environmental degradation they are very varied. Among them are:
We call pollution disturbance caused in the environment by the introduction of different substances to the environment and that exert a negative effect on it. There are different types of contamination, which are usually divided according to the affected environment. The most well-known and studied types of pollution are soil, atmospheric, water and noise pollution, but there are also other less known ones such as light, visual, thermal, electromagnetic, radioactive or genetic pollution.
Another method of classifying contamination is according to the degree of dispersion of the contaminants. Thus we have:
Much of the environmental deterioration is due to industrial activities, which produce goods for society at the cost of damaging the environment, generating pollutants or giving the population the necessary elements to continue deteriorating the environment.
The deterioration of the habitat is produced in large part by activities carried out by humans, such as the construction of dams or tourism on the coast, which worsen the conditions of the habitat, affecting the animal and plant species that inhabit it.
Another cause of environmental deterioration is the introduction of invasive species, since not being natural inhabitants of that habitat, they alter its conditions.
Environmental degradation can have effects on humans or your health. Some of them are:
Both plant and animal species suffer the consequences of environmental deterioration. Some are:
In summary, the consequences of environmental deterioration for the planet are as follows:
If you want to read more articles similar to Environmental degradation: definition, causes and consequences, we recommend that you enter our category of Other environment.