How humans are affecting the environment - Is the Earth benefiting or suffering, make your own mind up

How long have humans been around

The environment, nature and mankind are intertwined. What affects one will affect the other. Human beings have been on this Earth for about 270,000 years. Before this time, the environment and conditions on Earth weren't favourable for human beings.

It has either been too hot, too cold or too many predators or anything in-between. The current climate support an abundance of life both on and sea due to an intricate balance. There are just enough trees on the land and plankton in the sea to take up carbon dioxide and produce oxygen so that creatures that use oxygen and release carbon dioxide can live.

Impact of human activity

But due to human activity this balance is being upset. The obvious one that everyone is aware of is deforestation. With less trees, less carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured so the concentration of it in the atmosphere increases since tree are our natural carbon sink. CO2 is a green house gas which means it traps heat in the atmosphere and causes the Earth to warm up. The other main factor is the use of fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal. When they are burnt to produce electricity or run our car, they release huge amounts of CO2 - thereby further destabilising the carbon sink.

Another less obvious green house gas is methane - huge quantities of it are released by cattle. Due to a surge in cattle farming across the world in recent times, this has accelerated global warming.

The issue with global warming is two fold, firstly, parts of the world that were previously temperate or tropical will start to being more arid and desert like. Existing deserts will expand into the cooler areas around it. The wildlife that live in these areas will have to move causing a shift in the ecosystem. Some species can adapt or move whilst other will perish.

Secondly, as the Earth warms, the polar ice caps will melt and so the sea levels will rise. Low lying regions such as Bangladesh and Florida will being flooded. Most coastal areas will be affected too.

What this means for the Earth

All these negative affects means that the world as we know it will change and this change will be for the worse for humans and wildlife. We must all remember that if we begin to change the conditions on Earth to become less favourable for us and the current wildlife, then there may come a time that the conditions will be too harsh for us to exist and our reign on this Earth will be over. The Earth will however, continue on, without us and become favourable for an entirely different ecosystem.

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