Destruction of the Environment and Habitat: Causes and Consequences

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We all know what the environment is and what the habitat is, or at least we have a slight idea of the meaning of these concepts. Surely, we also know that the world's habitats, and with it the environment, are being destroyed, they are being degraded to the point of their disappearance. Do you know what the main causes are? And the consequences of this environmental problem?

Throughout this Green Ecologist article we will clarify these doubts and others related to this topic. Keep reading and know what is destruction of the environment and habitat, its causes and consequences.

What is the environment and habitat

On the one hand, environment It is the set of physical, chemical and biological elements that surround living beings and with which they interact and relate, since they obtain what they need to live from the environment. Find out more about What is the environment with this other Green Ecologist article.

On the other hand, we can define the natural habitat as the physical space without altering that meets the appropriate characteristics for life to develop in it. It complies with the necessary requirements so that animal and plant species can develop, in such a way that they can live and reproduce under those specific conditions.

The habitat does not follow a strict pattern, that is, a habitat can be a puddle or a meadow. The key is that the conditions that occur in this space are adequate for certain living beings, in this way a puddle is the habitat of microorganisms and bacteria but not of a giraffe, the habitat of a giraffe is however a plain or open woods. Here we talk more about habitat and specify the Difference between habitat and ecological niche.

What is the destruction of the environment and habitat and its causes

The main cause of the loss of biodiversity is the destruction of habitats and the environment itself, destruction is synonymous with altering the environment, to the point of ending the life forms that are found in it, since conditions have been modified. Directly or indirectly the cause of this loss and destruction of the environment and habitats It is the human being, of course. When we say directly or indirectly, we refer to actions that may be direct or derived from other actions but that cause the habitat fragmentation. And what does this lead to? In endangered species, among other consequences that we will develop later.

These are the main direct and indirect causes of the destruction of the environment and habitat:

Direct causes

• Construction of roads and infrastructures.
• Deforestation for the transformation of these lands into cultivated fields, such as palm oil crops (so famous in recent times)
• Business fires …
• Pollution of forests, meadows, seas, rivers …
• Uncontrolled hunting.
• Poaching.

Indirect causes

• Increase in temperatures due to climate change.
• Environmental pollution from the use of cars, motorcycles, airplanes …
• Pollution from industries or factories.

Destruction of the environment and habitats: consequences

Next, we are going to mention some of the consequences of habitat destruction.

• Biodiversity loss.
• Extinction of species, which not only remains in the extinction of one or several species, since everything is linked, due to trophic networks, among other aspects. A species disappears and the one that fed on it will end up the same, and so on progressively.
• The elimination of habitats and destruction of the environment not only has consequences for the animals and the vegetation that live in it, it also affects us, the human being or the rest of the habitats. For example, if we deforest a forest prior to a lake, either by logging or by fire, when rains occur they will sweep away and sweep away everything in their path, eventually draining and depositing everything in the waters of the lake and consequently we will have water pollution and problems for the survival of aquatic species …
• Increase in pollution.
• Increase in some species until the number of individuals there is dangerous for the environment, due to the lack of predators, which may have been eliminated due to the destruction of their habitat.

Ultimately, there is an ecological imbalance.

Examples of habitat and environment destruction - before and after pictures

To finish, we show some examples of habitat and environment destruction with pictures before and after the place:

• Aral Sea destroyed by pollution (Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan).
• Forests like those of Spain destroyed by fires.
• Amazon rainforest devastated by deforestation for crops and industry (Brazil). In this other article by Ecologist Verde we explain more about the Deforestation of the Amazon: causes and consequences.
• Coral reefs killed by pollution and rising temperatures (Caribbean Sea).

Please, from Green Ecologist, we want that after these images of the destruction of the environment and habitat (they are placed in the order indicated in the list) we are even more aware of what we are causing and try to remedy it.

Image: HuffingtonpostImage: ABCImage: BBCImage: ElTiempoHoy

If you want to read more articles similar to Destruction of the environment and habitat: causes and consequences, we recommend that you enter our category of Other environment.