How man influences the deterioration of the environment

The growing consumer market leads to the generation of large amounts of waste . Much of this waste is recycled and reused, but most of it becomes garbage. This trash leads to contamination of the air , water, or even outer space, what we call space junk .

This evil is not limited only to cities, it is the example of Mount Everest, a totally natural place where climbers have left so much garbage in the various stages of the ascent, that the authorities have had to take action on it.

Another example is the rivers of plastic and waste or the islands of plastic in the ocean. There are numerous water currents on the planet that must be navigated among garbage of the most diverse nature. In these places the biodiversity in flora and fauna also suffers the consequences and these are very negative. With this type of pollution we are destroying biodiversity , bringing many species to the brink of extinction or even extinction.

Due to the increasing technological development in our society, there is currently a new class of garbage that was not there before and that is electronic waste . It is garbage that is very difficult to recycle or dispose of and that produces a high level of pollution for the environment .

A problem associated with this garbage is that the richest countries have sold this waste to the poorest countries, converting cities such as Guiyu in China, Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, or the Agbogbloshie neighborhood in the Ghanaian capital of Accra and Lagos. in real electronic landfills .

In addition to the aforementioned wastes, another way on how man influences the deterioration of the environment is the level of contamination of water courses on our planet, especially in fresh water sources, it is so important that the polluting elements they have reached the deepest water tables.

This leads to industrial discharges (legal or not), sewage wastes or pesticide residues entering the earth and poisoning both surface and deep water for years.

Learn more about this topic in this other AgroCorrn article on Causes and consequences of water pollution .

Every day, in thousands of ports around the world, there is a constant transfer of oil and fossil fuels between the ships in charge of its transport and the tanks in which it is stored. This entails a constant dumping of fossil fuels , which together can reach figures as high as in major accidents.

Large ship accidents, such as the Prestige, the explosion of the BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico or the Exxon Valdez, are more specific situations, but they release large amounts of oil into the sea , causing damage to the environment of large dimensions and with serious consequences.

Large oil spills in the oceans are undoubtedly some of the most serious man-made natural disasters to ever occur.

The residues and wastes that are discharged into the waters contain elements that aquatic plants and algae use as nutrients. When used, these organisms develop in an excessive way and cause damage to the environment of the coasts, preventing the passage of sunlight in the water and compromising the survival of fish and other organisms that live there, among other things.

This phenomenon is called eutrophication and its consequences include the death of aquatic plants that decompose at the bottom generating methane and the death of aquatic animals, which in turn contributes to further poisoning the waters and breaking the balance of ecosystems.

Another point to take into account on how man influences the deterioration of the environment in a negative way is the destruction of our planet’s wetlands .

In some parts of the planet, its wetlands have been drained to generate farmland to produce food for the growing population. This implies a drastic landscape change, the loss of water in the area and the loss of great biodiversity.

Deforestation in many parts of the planet turns out to be an indiscriminate and aggressive felling of trees. The reason for this massive logging is to trade in the wood or use it for industrial purposes, use the land for agriculture, or build roads and infrastructure.

Deforestation has great negative consequences for the environment , such as increased erosion, desertification, worsening climate change, increased atmospheric CO2, or consequences for fauna and human life.