Human Impact on the Environment

Humans have changed the planet more in the last 250 years than in all the previous time we have been on it. Industrialisation, modern agriculture, and a global population that has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to over 8 billion today have all combined to put serious pressure on the natural environment.

The major categories of human impact are:

• Air pollution: greenhouse gases, acid rain, smog
• Water pollution: eutrophication, sewage, plastic, oil spills
• Land use change: deforestation, urbanisation, intensive agriculture
• Overexploitation of resources: fishing, hunting, deforestation again
• Climate change (the consequence of long-term air pollution)
• Loss of biodiversity (the consequence of all of the above)

This topic looks at the main mechanisms by which human activities are damaging ecosystems, and at what is being done to manage or reduce the harm.