What are anthropogenic factors?
This is an environmental factor caused by various forms of exposure
Professor G.F.Morozov, an outstanding Russian scientist, in 1912, in his book “The Doctrine of Forests,” for the first time in the history of ecology, proposed considering the human impact on nature as a separate environmental factor. He also proposed dividing the anthropogenic factor according to the nature of its influence on the natural environment into direct, indirect and conditional anthropogenic impact.
- Direct anthropogenic impact is the direct influence of humans on the natural environment.
- Indirect anthropogenic impact is the human influence on the natural environment through an intermediate level.
- Conditional anthropogenic impact is the influence of a disturbed natural environment on its components.
Direct or indirect negative actions of people on the environment
- industrial development,
- development of communication,
- construction of residential buildings and roads (land and water),
- agricultural development,
- deforestation,
- overexploitation of natural deposits (fossil fuels, metal ores, raw materials),
- overexploitation of wild plants and animals (including poaching, reckless hunting and fishing, collection of protected plants, trade in exotic animals),
- destruction or modification of natural habitats,
- population growth and consumption of natural resources.
Phased human influence on nature
- Hunting. Extinction of animal species
At the beginning of the development of humanity, peoplein an attempt to survive, they hunted various animals. In order to satisfy their animal needs, they did not think that over-dimensional hunting and extermination of animals would cause the complete extinction of certain species.
- Deforestation
This type of activity began to gain maximum momentum in the last 150 years. During this time, the number of forests has decreased by 70% of the total number of all forests on our planet.
This human activity has affectedchanging the balance in the ecosystem. First of all, this is due to a decrease in the amount of oxygen released by plants into the atmosphere, which in turn affects the appearance of ozone holes. Deforestation in itself would not be harmful if a person replenished what he took.
- Pollution from factories and industries
For the most part, these enterprises have a negative impact on the environment in one form or another. The two main problems of such enterprises are:
- Air pollution,
- Water pollution.
The first problem is air pollution with various harmful compounds that negatively affect not only the environment, but also the person himself.
It is also the release of carbon and vapors of various types, which form a greenhouse effect and also reduce the level of oxygen in the atmosphere, which leads to the formation of ozone holes.
Global warming as a result of suchhuman activity leads to the melting of glaciers, which in turn can hide an even greater danger. Various bacteria and organisms that have been hiding for millennia under a thick layer of ice come out, thereby forming new types of diseases and virus clichés.
The second problem is pollutionreservoirs. Enterprises located near bodies of water and using water from these bodies of water in their activities also negatively affect the environment. This creates the problem of not only pollution of water bodies, but also the problem of reducing the supply of clean fresh water.
- Mining
With progress, man has learned how to extract minerals that can be used to their advantage.
- Oil. The first problem that a person may encounter is an oil spill. This disrupts the balance in the ecosystem of a particular area of our planet due to which nature suffers. The soil and water become polluted and most often this leads to the death of birds, fish and other animals. The second problem is oil fire. When it burns, harmful substances are released into the atmosphere, including those that contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer.
- Coal.Coal mining and processing produces huge amounts of coal dust. All this dust, together with the air, rises to the upper layers of the atmosphere, polluting it and is dispersed by the wind over nearby areas. After which it falls to the ground in layers.
- Radioactive substances. Human progress in the development of nuclear energy knows many examples because of which the entire ecosystem was under threat. One striking example is the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The consequences of the use of this weapon are also devastating for the ecological environment in the area where it was used. Also, the use of this type of weapon affects the displacement of the earth’s rotation axis, which also negatively affects the planet’s ecosystem as a whole.
- Rubbish
Every day a person produces andSeveral thousand tons of garbage are thrown into the environment. And not all of this quantity is completely destroyed or is processed for further use.
In most countries, huge amounts of garbage are not recycled, but stored in landfills or pollute the environment.
Conventional landfills with garbage under the influence of the sun sooner or later begin to produce and emit harmful substances into the atmosphere, thereby poisoning the air.
The positive impact of man on nature
The relatively beneficial impact that humans have on nature is the creation of new ecosystems that would not have appeared naturally.
For example, when irrigating deserts, livelandscapes, new green zones are being formed around settlements. However, artificial systems are often not viable without constant human control and assistance.
Most often, the positive impact of humans on the environment refers to actions aimed at minimizing negative consequences and attempts to restore the damage caused to nature.
Thus, a person tries to protect the environment, first of all, from himself and to maintain acceptable environmental conditions for present and future generations.
- Creation of nature reserves and parks
Through national parks and reservesissues of preservation of certain species of fauna and flora are being resolved. If there were no special designated areas, some representatives of the animal and plant world would have disappeared from the planet long ago. Living conditions for wildlife continue to deteriorate.
- Planting green spaces
Creation of parks within the city, forest belts,planting allows you to generally improve the state of the environment. Also planting trees strengthens the soil on the slopes and along the roads, reduces the amount of noise, the spread of dust, harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
- Irrigation systems
Irrigation of the soil in order to increase fertility givesthe ability to increase the amount of harvest. Greening of deserts, abandoned territories leads to the emergence of new ecosystems in areas that were previously not foreseen for this. Green areas need constant human support. The nature of artificial systems over the years requires constant maintenance and control.
- Rational use of agricultural land
Thoughtful efficient development of existing landreduces the rate of soil depletion. Fertility is increased through the development of new varieties, the use of new generation fertilizers, a rational approach to crop cultivation: selection of crop cultivation technologies, improvement of fields.
- Wastewater treatment systems
New treatment systems for effluents and waste emissionssignificantly reduce the ingress of harmful substances into the environment and, as a result, its pollution. Thus, a person neutralizes the negative impact of industrial enterprises and factories. Several stages of filtration allow to clean up the emissions to the normative values in the region.
- Other positive points
To conserve natural resources,man tries to create alternative ones. To reduce the impact on the environment of mineral deposits, new, less destructive methods of extraction are being developed. Downhole methods are used to develop areas of deposits of precious minerals in Madagascar, Yakutia, gold - in Mongolia, African countries. In the Kursk region, construction sand is mined with the help of crane-boring equipment.
What part of the Earth has been influenced by humans?
In a new study, ecologists led by Cambridge University researcher Andrew Plumptra attempted to assess the extent of human interference in all of Earth's ecosystems.
To do this, scientists found out how many species of animals and plants have disappeared from all key ecoregions of the Earth over the past five centuries, and also studied how their habitat has changed.
Previously, researchers believed that humans do notreached approximately 20-40% of terrestrial ecosystems. The results of a new study show that in fact this figure is almost ten times lower - the number or habitat of at least one species of flora and fauna has sharply decreased as a result of human activity in 97% of the world's land masses.
At the same time, quite a lot of parts of wild nature, especially in Russia, Canada and Brazil, have been relatively little affected by humans.
This gives hope that in the coming years they can recover - if, of course, the authorities of these countries protect these ecosystems from further destruction.
Our calculations show that we can increasethe share of corners of nature untouched by humans will reach 20% if we begin to carry out targeted reintroduction of lost species to places where there are almost no traces of human activity. To do this, however, it will be necessary to restore their habitat and eliminate all possible threats to their survival.
Andrew Plumptre, Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge
How the Earth has changed over the past 37 years
Google has updated its Timelapse service - a functionGoogle Earth, which allows you to see how some places on the planet have changed over the decades. Any user can view the proposed locations in an interactive format, following their history for 37 years.
To do this, they have combined 24 million satelliteimages taken from 1984 to 2020. 20 petabytes of information were collected into one "video mosaic" of 4.4 terapixels, which is equivalent to 530 thousand videos in 4K resolution. According to Google, "This is the largest planetary video on the planet."
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