Question

Describe man's greatest IMPACT on nature locally & globally. How can YOU contribute to sustainability

Answer 1

Impact of human activities on the natural environment

- Live beings are typically adapted to their environment.

- Many human activities heavily disturb the natural environment, for example the extraction of resources, farming, the building of infrastructures...

- As a consequence, live beings might live in environments which are not adapted to them anymore.

- Human disturbances can be split in 2 categories: either human destroy the environment, or they act as predators.

- For example, artificial lighting creates a "forever day", but many animals need darkness to hide or hunt; the release of chemicals in ocean changes the physiology of fishes, such that males become females or the other way round; many animals are eating plastic because they think it is food.

- Human disturbances are the cause of the disappearance of many species.

Are we at the origin of a mass extinction?