Human impact on the environment

Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic environmental impact) refers to environmental changes caused directly or indirectly by humans. The changes include global warming, ocean acidification, air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, soil erosion, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem disruption. The impactful human activities include include population growth, economic growth, Overconsumption (economics) overconsumption, and overexploitation. Quotes Hunting Human hunting and other activities were responsible for pushing populations of animals to extinction long before the agricultural revolution, which began about ten thousand years ago. Today, however, our collective assault on animals, plants, and Microorganism microbes has reached such a horrendous level that any alarm we might sound will be too faint to match the tragedy that is unfolding. ...In the past century or so, both the World population population size and Accelerating change technological capabilities of Homo sapiens have increased spectacularly, and this is this is the root cause of the rapid acceleration in human-caused species extinctions, precipitating what is now called the Holocene extinction sixth great extinction wave. Gerardo Ceballos, Anne H. Ehrlich, and Paul R. Ehrlich, Preface ix–xi The Annihilation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals Baltimore, Maryland Johns Hopkins University Press 2015 9781421417196 https://books.google.com/books?id=77ClCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 (quote from p. ix; 208 pages; with contributions from Navjot Sodhi and original art by Ding Li Yong) Considerable interest in Nature conservation conservation, climate change, and extinctions arose amongst European colonialists who witnessed some of the consequences of Western-style economic development in tropical lands (Grove, 1997). However, the extent of human influence on the environment was not explored in detail and on the basis of sound data until George Perkins Marsh ... published Man and Nature (1864), in which he dealt with human influence on the woods, the waters, and the sands. Andrew Goudie (geographer) Andrew Goudie, The Human Impact on the Natural Environment: Past, Present and Future John Wiley & Sons 2018 8th 9781119403555 https://books.google.com/books?id=YZVdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 2 (1st edition 1981, MIT Press) When we began Animal husbandry farming animals and living more closely alongside them, we shared diseases with our new companions. And keeping animals with less genetic diversity than in the wild in crowded, stressful conditions also made them more susceptible to disease. Today, intensive poultry farming has created highly pathogenic forms of Avain influenza bird flu that have infected herds of cattle and their farmers in the US.Then there’s habitat destruction. By Deforestation chopping down tropical forests and disturbing other habitats, we’ve caused animals stress and forced them to live more closely together. That may have contributed to the spread of Ebola from Megabat fruit bats to apes, monkeys and small forest antelopes known as duikers.Climate change contributes too, by forcing animals and plants to move to cooler regions, and mixing them up with other species. An encounter with a disease that your body hasn’t evolved immunity to is always dangerous. Liz Kalaugher, 5 Questions with Liz Kalaugher, the author of “The Elephant in the Room” (interview by Publicity Team) Mary 16, 2025 The Chicago Blog, The University of Chicago Press (pressblog.uchicago.edu) https://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2025/05/16/5-questions-with-liz-kalaugher-the-author-of-the-elephant-in-the-room.html See: The Elephant in the Room: How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick University of Chicago Press 2025 0226840905 https://books.google.com/books?id=qbcjEQAAQBAJ. See also Environmentalism Sustainability Wild animal suffering External links Category:Environment Category:Human behavior