An essay on “Environmental Degradation: An Overview” by Nakul Bhatnagar & Radhika Sharma is a comprehensive analysis of the sudden and unpredictable degradation of the natural environment. Since the industrial revolution, humans have spewed out an unimaginable amount of carbon dioxide into the environment. This has caused the earth to become warmer and the ocean to acidify. If we don’t stop polluting, global biodiversity will most likely decrease over time. Effects may include population extinction, Ecosystem collapse, transboundary air pollution, climate change, species extinction, or depletion.
The author elucidates that climate change results in an environmental crisis that causes wide-ranging negative impacts on biodiversity. The environmental crisis is not a distant problem but one with immediate, devastating effects on the lives of the people around us. We need to use less energy and be more mindful of our consumption habits in order to slow down global warming and create a sustainable future for ourselves.
If we don’t stop polluting, there will be a drastic decrease in global biodiversity over time, leaving us with only a few animal species living on our planet. An environmental crisis is an overarching problem that affects every living person, animal, and plant. Immediate problems include biodiversity loss, deforestation, over-exploitation of natural resources, acute pollution, and climate change. The world is in a state of environmental crisis, but there are many causes for this state of affairs. These emissions exacerbate climate change because they absorb thermal radiation at the earth’s surface.
The author laments that the environment has several problems, and with time these problems convert into environmental crisis, and some of the problems seems to worsen with the passage of time. Acid rain causes harm to the human body, and this rain also negatively impacts humans, wildlife, aquatic species, and other species living on earth because of the pollutant present in the atmosphere like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen.
Introduction
Our Environment is in jeopardy. Climate change has led to increased droughts and severe changes in our weather patterns, causing unprecedented famines and leaving millions of people without food, water, or basic necessities. The environmental crisis is not a distant problem but one with immediate, devastating effects on the lives of the people around us.
We need to use less energy and be more mindful about our consumption habits in order to slow down global warming and create a sustainable future for ourselves rather than one fraught with devastation at every turn.
Since the industrial revolution, humans have spewed out an unimaginable amount of carbon dioxide into the environment. This has caused the earth to become warmer and the ocean to acidify. Side effects of global warming are expected to be harmful to both humans and animals alike.
The number of species that are in danger because of global warming is constantly increasing. If we don’t stop polluting, there will most likely be a drastic decrease in global biodiversity over time, leaving us with only a few animal species living on our planet. The change will be too severe for even just one animal species to survive on our planet as they all rely on each other for survival; therefore, destroying them all simultaneously would mean total extinction.
The effects of climate change are undeniable and have been strongly supported by scientific research. As the global temperature rises, water levels worldwide rise with it. In turn, this leads to increased forest fires, loss of habitable land, and species extinction. This leaves us with a few possible solutions to help combat climate change- shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and altering our lifestyles in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
What is Environmental Crisis?
An environmental crisis is the worsening of our environment due to human activity. It is a form of climate change and can cause environmental problems such as increased nutrient pollution and water contamination. These countries that are most affected by environmental crisis include:
The United States (U.S.) – The U.S. has a high concentration of industries that rely heavily on fossil fuels, which contributes to and causes environmental crises on several levels including our ozone layer being damaged and higher occurrences of forest fires. Also, our freshwater resources have decreased due to increased pollution caused by farming and industry.
Africa– Africa’s climate, soil, and freshwater are being affected by environmental crisis due to deforestation. This is due to the fact that they are not able to control the population growth and uncontrolled logging. This also causes a decrease in soil fertility and land quality.
South America – South America is home to several countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, where the effects of severe poverty have led to deforestation and illegal logging that contribute to the environmental crisis on a global scale. Also, many industries rely heavily on fossil fuels which cause air pollution, damage to the ozone layer, and climate change.
An environmental crisis is the sudden and unpredictable degradation of the natural environment by natural or human-made means and its effects on living organisms. Effects may include population extinction, ecosystem, collapse, transboundary air pollution, climate change, species extinction, or depletion.
Climate change resulting in an environmental crisis will greatly impact biodiversity loss. Combating these changes requires an organized approach that can be costly in terms of time and resources.
Environmentalism is the belief in the value of protecting and enhancing the natural environment provided by living things. Environmental values can be expressed in terms of views about issues such as sustainable development, pollution, resource consumption, or nature conservation.
“Environmentalism” is a term that typically refers to humans’ self-interested efforts to protect and enhance the environment for the future generations of themselves and other species.
Environmental Ethics
Environmental ethics is a branch of ethics that deals with the moral principles that are said to apply to human relationships with the natural world. The phrase “environmental ethics” is often used interchangeably with “ecological ethics”. However, some scholars differentiate between these two disciplines, because environmental ethics is concerned with individual and social moral reasoning about the environment and its broader ecological system, whereas ecological ethics deals with the moral principles that apply to human interactions with other species in a particular ecosystem.
The environmental crisis concern a wide range of issues. It is called an “ecological environmental crisis” when the natural environment is being damaged by humans, and it is called an “ecological/environmental emergency” when an immediate threat to the survival of humans or other species exists.
An environmental crisis can happen suddenly, because of the depletion of resources such as oil and groundwater, water overuse, or climate change. An environmental emergency can be caused by pollution.
Because the environment has important consequences for humans and other living species, the topic has formed a part of the philosophical, economic, and environmental debate. The environmental crisis is caused by significant changes in the earth’s environment or ecosystems that are a concern because of their potential to impact or interfere with human societies and negatively impact human health.
The world resources institute estimates that while we waste up to 40% of available resources, we only produce 1% growth per year (1.8%). The situation is even more difficult considering that by 2025 will be 40% more proportion on earth, which means to the available resources.
Climate Change: Environmental Issue
Climate change is probably one of the most prominent environmental issues today. Climate change is the change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time. Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variation in solar radiation by the earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruption.
When humans enter the ecology uncontrolled, they can disrupt the balance of an ecosystem and cause irreversible damage to it. The most famous example is the introduction of invasive species by humans.
Human activities have created or changed the environment in various ways. Some have been good for mankind and others bad. Examples of good environmental change include:
Ecosystem services are produced by ecosystems such as carbon, water, nutrients, and biodiversity conservation. The ecological footprint is explained in the article.
A biosphere (“biosphere” is the name of the planet’s outer shell or crust) is a sphere encompassing all living organisms, which interact with each other and their immediate environment. Biospheres are composed of two main layers: an overlying hydrosphere and an underlying biota. The hydrosphere is a portion of the earth’s atmosphere without life, but with essential functions similar to that of one.
An environmental crisis is an overarching problem that affects every living person, animal, and plant. It’s been said by many organizations including the United Nations and Governments, that the world is in a state of environmental crisis. However, there are many causes for this state of affairs (such as land use changes) and some not-so-obvious ones like the release of methane gas from unsustainable farms or deforestation causing global climate change.
Human activity has distributed the balance between human needs and the planet’s ability to provide. The result is a continuous degradation of global living conditions. Immediate problems include loss of biodiversity, deforestation, over-exploitation of natural resources, acute pollution, and climate change.
Essentially what we’re experiencing is a worldwide biological meltdown caused by unsustainable exploitation and use of resources.
Climate change is a significant global environmental problem that affects the entire planet. As of 2013, approximately one-quarter of the total land area on earth is affected by climate change. About 70% or more of global greenhouse emissions are from fossil fuels and deforestation. These emissions are from fossil fuels and deforestation. These emissions exacerbate climate change because they absorb thermal radiation (a measure of how much heat a given body emits) at the earth’s surface.
A good example of this is carbon dioxide and methane. In 2007 there was a major increase in methane, approximately a 20% increase. Climate change refers to any significant variation in global weather patterns over an extended period of time. It can have major environmental, Social and economic consequences. It results in the earth’s climate system changing rapidly or slowly over a period of time and may result in changes such as sea level rise, temperature change, or glacial retreat.
The world is in a bit of a crisis at the moment, what with its soaring temperatures, melting ice caps, and lifeless forests; but there is one area that has been badly hit by this change: the ocean. The release of chemicals and waste daily erodes the world’s oceans. We may be destroying one life-sustaining column after another. But it gets worse: even if we could stop polluting tomorrow, it would not solve our problems.
Some people may think that environmental problems are too complicated or that they might never understand them. However, as crowded and polluted countries continue to develop, it is important for the rest of us to learn about the earth’s natural resources so we can conserve them and make a difference in our world.
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