Environmental Degradation
All living beings and non-living beings present on the Earth represent the environment. The biotic
and abiotic factors which surrounds any living organism is considered as its environment. Plants,
creatures, water, air, and other living things that exists in our environment are used and are
known as resources. Community of organisms living in a particular environment and the physical
elements in that environment with which they interact. From this Environment we get many
resources such as land/soil resources water resources etc. we humans use these resources to
make more resources ie. Man made resources.
During this whole cycle of using the resource to make more resources some resource starts to
get depleting on earth, or some gets degraded by humans or by natural cause this is called
Environmental degradation, the degradation of environment.
Our Environment is degraded in some of the following ways;
1. Land degradation
2. Water degradation
3. Air degradation
4. Resource degradation
1. Land degradation
Land degradation is a process in which the value of biophysical environment is by a combination
of human introduced process acting upon the land. It is viewed as an change or disturbance to
the land received to be DILITIRIOUS all undesirable. land degradation are caused by either
natural hazards or human activities but natural hazards are excluded as a cause; however human
activities can indirectly affect phenomena such as mining floods and bushfire. Due to implication
land degradation has upon the agricultural productivity has degraded overtime First off it is
estimated baat up to 4% of the worlds agricultural land is seriously degraded soil erosion from
agricultural fields is estimated to be currently 10 to 20 times 2 more than 100 times and higher
than the soil formation great about 12,000,000 hectares of productive land is roughly equal to
the size of Greece dated every year
The land is degraded by the following types
Pollution often chemical due to the agricultural industrial mining or commercial activities
Laws ofable land due to urban construction road building land conservation agricultural
expansion etc
Artificial radioactive sometimes accidental
Land use constraints associated with armed conflict
Land creation such as clear cut and deforestation are the main causes of degradation other
causes are agricultural depletion of soil nutrition through poor farming activities
The farmer users heavy pesticides add insecticides in order to grow their plants these do a major
damage to the soil and change it to a barren land landslides also come into affect which can
cause in tensile events such as Individual rainstorms.
2. Water degradation
One of the major component of environmental degradation is the depletion of resource of
freshwater on the earth I live
Approximately 2.5% of all the water on earth is fresh address being the salt water (which
cannot be used)
Freshwater is an exceptionally important resource since life on earth is ultimately dependent
on it what are transports nutrients minerals and chemicals within the biosphere to all forms of
life
The current top 3 use of freshwater account for 95% consumption approximately 85% is used
for irrigation of farmland score for spots and 6% is used for domestic purposes such as
indoor bathing news outdoor garden and lawn news and 4% is used as an industrial process
such as processing washing and cooling in manufacturing centres climate change affects the
odds water supply in a large number of ways it is predicted that the mean of global
temperature will rise in the coming years due to the number of forces affecting the climate
this will ultimately affect the amount of water able to replenish Groundwater supplies
The human population on the earth is expanding rapidly which together with even more rapid
economic growth is also a main cause of degradation of water as the population grows the
demand off jobs, factories, goods increases for making these goods factories produce a lot
off waste material and which they discharge in rivers, ponds, lakes etcetera
water is also degraded by the use of pesticides and insecticides and agriculture
When the farmer uses a lot of pesticides and insecticides bees are not absorbed by the soil and
when the rain comes they are washed away towards the river making the river water poisonous
and harmful for consumption.
3. Air degradation
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in
the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause
damage to the climate or to materials
Air pollution can cause diseases, allergies, and even death to humans; it can also cause
harm to other living organisms such as animals and food crops, and may damage
the natural environment (for example, climate change, ozone depletion or habitat
degradation) or built environment (for example, acid rain) ] Air pollution can be caused by
both human activities and natural phenomena.[3]
v
The human health effects of poor air quality are far reaching, but principally affect the body's
respiratory system and the cardiovascular system. Individual reactions to air pollutants
depend on the type of pollutant a person is exposed to, the degree of exposure, and the
individual's health status and genetics
Outdoor air pollution alone causes 2.1[9][10] to 4.21 million deaths annually, making it one of
the top contributors to human death.
Overall, air pollution
causes the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide each year, or a global mean loss of
life expectancy (LLE) of 2.9 years,[12] and is the world's largest single environmental health
risk.[4][13][14] Indoor air pollution and poor urban air quality are listed as two of the world's
worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst Polluted Places
report.[15] The scope of the air pollution crisis is enormous: 90% of the world's population
breathes dirty air to some degree. Although the health consequences are extensive, the way
the problem is handled is often haphazard.
Sources of air pollution
• smoke stacks of fossil fuels and biomass power stations (see for
example environmental impact of the coal industry)
• burning of traditional biomass such as wood, crop waste and dung.
1. Waste deposition in landfills, which generate methane. Methane is highly flammable
and may form explosive mixtures with air. Methane is also an asphyxiant and may
displace oxygen in an enclosed space. Asphyxia or suffocation may result if the
oxygen concentration is reduced to below 19.5% by displacement. Fertilized
farmland may be a major source of nitrogen oxides.[37]Air pollutant emission factors
are reported representative values that attempt to relate the quantity of a pollutant
released to the ambient air with an activity associated with the release of that
pollutant. In most cases, these factors are simply averages of all available data of
acceptable quality, and are generally assumed to be representative of long-term
[Link] air pollutant is a material in the air that can have adverse effects on
humans and the ecosystem.[48] The substance can be solid particles, liquid droplets,
or gases
