The environment has undergone great changes and variations, for which it has been compromised and completely exposed to great impact. In this article you will find some examples of environmental impact, the causes of it, consequences and much more.
What is environmental impact?
The environmental impact is all the changes that the environment has to undergo due to many reasons, such as pollution, industrial activities, scientific advances and even natural events, that is, natural disasters.
Every action of man will always have an impact on something, which means that it will have consequences, where we can also say that if this action is done in the environment, then it will have its impact and this in turn can be positive. This means that through any action or influence, the environment can be favored or harmed.
To speak of the environmental impact is to refer to a subject that has been studied and treated throughout the world, this is due to the environmental difficulties that occur throughout the planet due to continuous droughts, damage to the ozone layer and the soil, this being a consequence of contamination and very varied reasons.
In general, the deterioration of the environment has always been attributed to man, however, the environmental impact is also due to natural causes. The environment is everything that surrounds us, this is the area where all living beings grow and develop.
The place where everyone can interact and this encompasses different elements, such as fauna, flora, and human beings, in addition to all those elements that have been made by man, such as social culture, urbanizations and the different traditions that man has. .
This means that the environment symbolizes a whole, from the natural to what has been created by humanity. Although, the changes that the environment has suffered and suffers daily, are mainly due to human intervention.
Types of environmental impact that exist
The Types of environmental impact, are classified according to the effects that these actions have caused in nature, which could be positive and negative effects.
Positive environmental impact
The positive impact is the one that benefits the environment and that seeks improvements that prevent any type of problem that may arise and that currently affects the environment, so that in this way they can be prevented from getting worse.
Thanks to the positive impact, many changes have been produced that greatly benefit the planet earth, where the positive actions of man are implicit in favoring the environment.
However, it is extremely important to highlight that positive environmental impacts, unfortunately, do not usually last for long, and this is the reason why it is necessary to maintain proper conduct with the planet over time, always trying to promote awareness in all human beings.
Examples of positive environmental impact
Like some examples of environmental impact positive, we can find different actions directly linked to nature, which positively help the entire planet earth and where many of these positive actions come from the human being. Examples of positive impact include the following:
- Caring for parks and green areas: Caring for, maintaining, protecting, reforesting and cultivating these spaces corresponds to being an important environmental impact, since these examples will help the communities to improve, beautify and also provide new green lungs to nature.
- Recycling and proper treatment of waste: If all human beings properly carry out these two activities in their homes, as part of their daily habit, then this could greatly influence the environment, thus reducing emissions to a great extent. Environmental problemsTherefore, it is important to encourage these examples, so that people do them constantly and in this way, they will not become only temporary effects.
- Growth for the ecological interest: It is important to encourage the interest of human beings towards ecology, that is why today we can see in many places, such as supermarkets and companies, that are equipped with ecological and biodegradable products, since these are highly requested. Likewise, all these actions become a positive impact for the environment.
- Use of technology for the environment: Technology is not only a tool that makes life easier for man, but also provides excellent benefits to the environmental impact, an example of this would be the use of technological knowledge to create processes that are more respectful of the environment.
Negative environmental impact
Now, we have that the negative environmental impact has caused great damage to a large part of the natural elements, bringing serious consequences for all living beings on the planet, both now and in the future.
The negative environmental impact is completely opposite to the positive one, and as we have already mentioned before, both human beings and nature itself are the ones who have caused these negative effects, causing the earth to suffer considerably.
Sadly, many of the effects of the negative environmental impact are irrevocable and with lasting results, which make it impossible to recover or quickly solve. That is why great importance is given to positive environmental impacts being practiced over time, renewing and improving continuously.
This is done with the main intention that they can help balance the negative effects that occur in the environment. Negative environmental impacts are those changes in the environment that adversely affect it, as well as the health of human beings.
Negative environmental impacts refer to a set of changes that are produced in the environment and that can become very harmful, because its natural condition is destroyed, thus harming all natural conditions and causing problems to human health, increased disease and causing loss of biodiversity.
Examples of negative environmental impact
The negative environmental impact is one of the main reasons why the planet earth is totally exposed, in addition to the fact that the factors that intensify the negative impact on the planet are increasing daily, forming a sequence of unfavorable events to give continuity to the life on the planet.
The examples of environmental impact that negatively affect planet earth, are the following:
- Industrial activity: Unfortunately, industrial activity causes a great negative environmental impact, where the human being has been the protagonist of it, because these actions have caused a great change to nature and have affected the habitat of countless living beings , causing these examples of irreversible environmental impact.
- Contamination: Environmental pollution has also caused a great negative environmental impact, which in turn has been caused by the mismanagement of spills, waste or industrial accidents, and also the lack of environmental awareness on the part of human beings, where their The main consequences have been the loss of biodiversity and the increase in diseases or health problems.
- Natural disasters: Another of the examples of environmental impact They are natural disasters, as we mentioned before, since nature is also partly to blame for what have been negative effects on the planet, this is due to the alterations, movements and violent changes that the earth makes unexpectedly. .
- Lack of interest in environmental education: One of the most serious examples is the lack of interest of human beings in learning about environmental education and the serious environmental consequences that the planet is experiencing. Unfortunately, there is a significant number of the population that is simply not interested in learning how to avoid these consequences, nor put more interest in caring for and protecting the environment.
Direct and indirect environmental impact
Direct environmental impacts refer to all those that can be seen after their action ends, an example of this would be natural disasters, which immediately destroy all the areas through which they pass, so it can be quickly perceived. .
On the other hand, indirect environmental impacts take much longer to be perceived and therefore can be considered as secondary damage. An example is the damage to the ozone layer, which for thousands and thousands of years has gradually accumulated many environmental problems, deteriorating its structure.
Other examples of environmental impact
In our day to day we can observe many of the negative effects that we cause in the environment, although some are not so remarkable, it is important to know what they are:
Water contamination
Water pollution is mainly due to garbage waste and toxic substances, such as chemicals, metals and some radioactive waste that accumulate in different water tanks, thus affecting rivers, lakes and even seas.
Producing wastewater discharges in the surrounding populations, which can cause an increase in temperatures and a massive accumulation of garbage in the rivers, causing a great impact due to the loss of biodiversity and changes in biochemical cycles.
Atmospheric pollution
Atmospheric pollution corresponds to the entire gaseous and atmospheric zone that encompasses the planet, which is affected due to the harmful gases that are produced by the burning of hydrocarbons from automobiles, in addition to the gases generated by industrial areas, houses , among others.
All of these are situations that can seriously harm the ozone layer, creating the greenhouse effect, acid rain and smog that affect so many nations.
Wars
Due to cultural, religious and even opinion differences, man has caused many wars over time, mostly unnecessary, that marked the history of nations and the entire planet, such as the use of nuclear bombs.
Thus causing the death of a large number of people, but also influencing the entire environment that surrounded us, where some spaces can be recovered, but in others they remained as completely infertile areas.
Hunting and loss of biodiversity.
Currently, the world is inhabited by a great diversity of animals, of which many are the main source of food and due to this, over the years the excessive use of hunting has been noted, which represent a great loss of great part of these animals throughout the planet.
In many of these cases, man has felt motivated to hunt these species, only for the search of trophies for some animals, especially the skins, as well as tusks or horns, exotic species, with the passage of time they are animals that are found extinct or endangered.
Deforestation
In this case, we refer to the elimination of all plant species that are distributed throughout the world, which is also a major element that causes the loss of biodiversity, both plants and animals.
Negatively impacting the productivity of all plant areas that collaborate with the production of oxygen on the planet and that, in turn, generate biomass and energy for other living organisms.
Urban Development
Population growth has brought with it the development of large urban complexes, thus destroying large areas of nature to carry out construction, housing and new avenues.
All this has caused the loss of soil and deforestation causing the loss of natural habitats and ecosystems, for the creation of new cities that feed pollution on the planet.
Examples of environmental pollution
Humanity has been in charge of creating great advances for humanity, however, many have caused great damage to the environment in all senses, including such simple and insignificant daily actions that can have a negative impact on our environment.
Many actions like the ones we will highlight below are those that help to pollute the environment without realizing it:
Wrappers and packaging
The excessive use of wrappers and packaging greatly increases the amount of waste and waste, which is increasing with each passing day. For that reason, it is that daily we should focus on using methods such as reusing waste.
Excessive use of water
In some societies that have constant access to water, they do not take this benefit into account and make excessive use of it, often wasting it, as is the case of taking a shower, leaving the tap running, generating a large water consumption and loss of this precious liquid.
For this reason, it is always recommended to keep the tap closed as much as possible, in order to collaborate with the conservation of water or recover what can be used to water the plants.
Power consumption
The growth of the population is increasing every day, this has brought with it many problems throughout the planet in terms of electricity consumption, due to the high demands for electricity, which has caused an energy saturation and motivates pollution in several factors. , by the source that generates said electricity.
For this reason, it is recommended to use incandescent light bulbs, which are of low electrical consumption, disconnect appliances and turn off lights in areas that are not necessary, in this way to help reduce excessive consumption of electricity worldwide.
Environmental impact classification
In turn, negative environmental impacts can be classified according to the effect they produce over time and the ability they may have to return to the situation before the consequences occurred:
- persistent: It is a long-term impact with lasting effects, both in time and space.
- Reversible: These are the impacts where the environment could recover, although not completely, either in the short, medium or long term.
- Temporary: They correspond to being short-term impacts and with transitory effect, therefore, the environment can return to the previous state it had before the impact.
- Irreversible: These are the impacts that produce a permanent and irreversible effect on the environment.
Keys to avoid polluting the environment
The planet earth is made up of a great variety of ecosystems and places, where the life of all human beings takes place, a fact that even harms the survival of all beings.
Due to this reason, we seek to carry out the appropriate actions that allow us to reduce all the reasons responsible for pollution, which may be present in the daily life of the human being and help with the preservation of the environment that surrounds us.
That is why we must encourage Environmental awareness and reduce the excessive use of plastic bags, using bags made with recyclable material that are very common today, which we can use to make household purchases or any activity for which they are necessary.
In case of using plastic bags, it is recommended that they be recycled and used again for something useful, thus reducing their consumption.
In addition, noise and visual pollution have a great impact on the environment, for this reason it is necessary to use low-consumption light bulbs and reduce the excessive use of electricity.
It is also advisable to create orchards in homes and plant vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants, in order to promote direct contact with nature and its conservation.
Due to all these effects that the actions of man can cause in the environment, it is necessary to call our attention and think about what we can do, in order to contribute our percentage of positive environmental impact.
Which corresponds to all those actions that can benefit the environment, which are often used to correct all the negative effects produced by human activities.
Activities that benefit the environment
Here are some of the many activities that can help reduce the environmental impact on the planet and benefit the environment:
Reforestation
It is advisable to carry out the reforestation activity, which consists of replanting in affected areas and effectively fertilizing the soil, to provide nutrients that circulate in the system, which could produce an increase in biodiversity, improve soil productivity and help in generating biomass.
In addition to favoring the absorption of the sun, which is responsible for capturing the carbon dioxide that is provided to the atmosphere, which would only bring contributions and benefits that would help reduce the greenhouse effect.
Efficient irrigation
It is very important to make use of the irrigation systems that have been established in many places, and where methods are applied with the drip system to be able to improve the spaces where there are really long periods of drought, in addition to increasing and improving the production of crops, and save the water that is being used.
Treatment of waste water
It is recommended and very necessary to purify the water, which represents a very positive impact on the environment, because its reuse and the quality of the liquid can be guaranteed, which is vital for all species of living beings, not only the human being.
Recycling
It is also recommended to use recycling methods, which have the purpose of separating all waste according to its composition, toxicity and duration, in order to be able to use it again in any activity where it is useful, or to be able to subject it to a special treatment before being effectively discarded.
Finally, it is necessary to be able to recognize the environmental deterioration that human beings are capable of generating in our environment, however, we also have the ability to reflect on this situation, and take actions that help us correct the damage caused to the planet.