Environmental Issues In The Study Of Environmental Science

Improved Essays
Today in the year 2015 there are alarming factors impacting the Earth. In the study of environmental science, defined as “the study of how the natural world works, and how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment (Withgott, 2012)”, takes a deeper look in how we can improve our world by changing our ways of living. Environmental issues such as depleting natural recourses, harming ecosystems, using fossil fuels and population growth are major contributing factors in harming our environment in the 21st century. Natural resources stated by Withgott are sources people take from the environment in order to survive. Examples of natural recourses consist of air, water, wood, oil, and wind (p.3). Natural recourses are an issue …show more content…
Our ecosystem described by Withgott are the initial items we need to live such as air and water. Our ecosystems are all items people cannot live without. The damage effects caused by population growth and fossil fuels are all ruining the natural ecosystems. By air pollution caused by mass productions, gas used by cars, and population growth, these factors are a major environmental issues. “Fossil Fuels are non-renewable energy sources such as oil, coal and natural gas (Withgott, 2014).” Our population growth is causing harm to our ecosystems by polluting the air by our fossil fuels on running cards. The technology is growing and with this affect more buildings are being built causing to destroy ecosystems for that to happen. We are all damaging the ecosystems around us. Stated by Withgott, our population has grown over seven billion people beyond what we can hold. With every single person is equal to several thousand people. The population growth is damaging our environment by having to use all the recourses that are given as stated. By all of these factors of harming our natural resources, harming eco systems, usage of fossil fuels all stem to the growth of our population are hurting our …show more content…
Ecological footprints “represents the total area of biologically productive land and water needed to produce the resources and dispose of the waste for a given person or population (Withgott, 2014).” Wackernagel explain how we are using more than 50% more of the planets recourses that are even available (p.5). With our damaging of our resources, we are taking more away from our environment and losing out on our fresh water, crops and the damaging of our soils. The ecological footprints are much larger in the United States then in other countries and have the pleasure of not seeing the damage right away, but in poor countries the luxury of having clean water and air with exceeding population and no means to take care of the land the environment is

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Name: Tarek Arabi Elmasri Candidate number: 3054 Centre number: 11255 Centre name: Westminster Academy Unit: 90353-Controlled Assessment Task 2 Topic: Energy in the 21st century Geographical issue: “What are the environmental effects of using natural resources as sources of energy?” Introduction What are the environmental effects of using natural resources as sources of energy?…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the main reasons that environmental issues have arose are due to excessive human use. “Totalitarian agriculture is based on the premise that all the food in the world belongs to us, and there is no limit whatever to what we may take for ourselves and deny to all others.” (Story of B pg. 260). Instead of nature, the people have…

    • 2018 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The environment is all around us. It the air we breathe and ecosystem is all part of that. We are constantly polluting it. Changes in your community you can change your environment quickly as well and what John Muir didn’t want to happen, I sure don’t. Population growth is an issue we need to solve and have been working at for years.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Climate Change In the modern world, humans have made great developments and these advanced development’s contribution in our lives is considerable. On the other hand, the anthropogenic activities by the means of using these advanced technologies has a great effect on the atmosphere of the world. The human activities are the major cause of climate change in the world, which is destroying this planet and causing natural disasters.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The population of the planet is reaching unsustainable levels as it faces shortage of resources like water, fuel and food. Population explosion in less developed and developing countries is straining the already scarce resources. Intensive agriculture practiced to produce food damages the environment through use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides. Overpopulation is one of the crucial current environmental problem. African Americans are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air pollution.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The world’s population is constantly growing, and with this comes the growth of the world’s middle class. The growth of the world’s middle class is beneficial to those who are moving up in their social and socio-economic statuses, however, this global increase of middle classes can be seen to be linked with the global increase in ecological footprint. The amount of people living in a middle class status has increased dramatically, similarly to global ecological footprint which is also increasing at a high rate. These two things can be linked to each other, as the rising global amount of middle class people can be seen as a cause for the increase in global ecological footprint.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Effects on our Environment Explanatory Synthesis In the articles “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem” by Erle C. Ellis, “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem? Really?” By Robert Walker, “Overpopulation Is Still the Problem” by Alon Tal and “The Overpopulation Myth” by Fred Pearce each author discusses the issue of overpopulation and how it has become a debate among many as to whether it really is as big of an issue as some may think. All four authors have strong opinions on whether or not they believe that the increase in overpopulation is a more substantial issue than consumption.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This problem is causing our food capacity to decrease. Another thing is that we can’t let animals live in peace cause we have so many people to feed so we have to kill them for resources. A solution to this is we should respect the environment. Us humans are dramatically making global warming to increase and producing so much carbon dioxide from cars. With the overproduction, more people are driving cars which is making global warming to go up.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Overpopulation In America

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Earth has and will always have limited resources and we need to ration our food while we can. This is a real problem most people wouldn't notice and those people are being blind to the reality that this Earth will not have enough resources to support many more people. the population we How many more people can the earth support? With the population growing, food is going to get harder and harder to find and to grow.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As the environment calls for our help, humans must take a stand to defend and take care of the world that we thrive off of. The environment is helpless to fighting back against its enemies of destruction. As humans remain blind to the wasteland that lies in our future, our land itself cannot stop the…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Life as we know it would be impossible if ecosystems collapsed” (Jerry Coyne). Granted that humans depend on every natural service that the Earth provides for us, however, we continue to live a destructive way of life without realizing the consequences. “Scientists agree that we’re now in the midst of a sixth [mass extinction]” (Jerry Coyne). Every year, 30,000 species go extinct due to the hazardous effects of human activity on wildlife. At this rate, the sixth mass extinction could happen within the next century or two, with humans being the main cause of this catastrophe.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This paper attempts to read the novel Surfacing, written by the Booker Prize winning Canadian author, poet, critic and environmental activist Margaret Atwood, through the lens of ecocriticism. Atwood has delved not only into the changing ecological Canadian scenario as an aftereffect of what she calls ‘Americanisation’, but through her protagonist and her journey of self-exploration, Atwood portrays nature as the elemental force that makes a man realise the essence of humanity, and only in oneness with nature, with a complete surrender to the ways of nature and in fully embracing nature as opposed to the man made materialistic society, can one attain harmony both within and without, and also self-sustainability, as dawns on the protagonist in the course of the novel. Key Words: Environment, Literary texts, Ecocriticism, Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, Changing ecology of Canada, Self exploration, Self sustainability, Oneness with nature…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the last two hundred years, the earth has seen an astonishingly dramatic increase in the human population on earth. Humans have been on this planet for an estimated three million years and we have grown to a current population of approximately seven billion. Environmental scientists question the limits of the earth and how long many people it can accommodate before too much of a toll is taken and the population can no longer be sustained by the resources we have on earth. For thousands of years, the hunter and gatherer ways kept the population to a manageable ten million people. The growth of agriculture then allowed for communities to support more people and the population began to flourish.…

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Man and environment are inter-related. The environment influences the life of human beings and also human beings modify their environment as a result of their growth, dispersal, activities, death and decay etc. Thus all living beings including man and their environment are mutually reactive affecting each other in a number of ways and a dynamic equilibrium is possible in between the two, i.e. human beings (society) and environment are interdependent. The different social structures like industrial, agricultural, religious, aesthetic etc. have developed during various stages of human civilization and these structures represent human being’s accumulated cultural resources based on natural environment.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imposing a time limit on the ecosystem, leading the global society to creating more living space or more environment, such as exploring ways to build cities beneath the ocean and to colonize the moon to combat the exponential human growth population. However, we cannot “grow” into sustainability especially environmental sustainability. Time is limited and it is important to invest in ways to regenerate what human kind has already damaged. One main reason humans seek environmental sustainability is to protect the way of life humans has become accustomed to. While developed, countries rob the natural resources of less develop country, it is difficult to narrow the equality gap between the rich and the…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays