The environment plays a significant role in life. It provides indispensible necessities to humans, animal life and plant life, such as water, food, shelter, and air resources. Meanwhile, human everyday actions and decisions are negatively impacting the environment, causing pollution, deforestation, overfishing. As the human population increases, it is understood that the environment will change; scenic roads become busy interstates, livestock pastures transform into shopping centers, peaceful forests are destroyed to make room for waste. It appears that the earth is being led to a dim future. As mere visitors of the earth, humans need to recognize the issues facing the environment and take action.
In the Environmental Health Science (EHS) program, students learn to access, prevent, and control factors in the environment that can potentially affect health. Its overall goal is to prepare students for careers as environmental and occupational health specialists. Specialists apply knowledge, research, enforce, and write legislation, and lobby on behalf of the environment.
1. NEGATIVE IMPACTS
1.1 AIR POLLUTION
One negative impact seen across the globe is air pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines it as “the presence of contaminants or pollutant substances in the air that interfere with human health or welfare, or produce other harmful environmental effects.” It wasn’t until approximately the 1960s that people began to notice and draw attention to the diminishing quality of the environment. Congress responded by passing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969, a movement by the federal government towards environmental stewardship. NEPA established a United States national pol...
... middle of paper ...
...Von Holle. "Invasive Plants and the Nursery Industry." American Nurseryman 1 September 2011: 12.
Rainforest Facts. 6 October 2011. 25 April 2012. .
Remove Exotic Pests: Audobon at Home. 2012. 28 April 2012. .
REN21. Renewables 2011 Global Status Report. Paris: REN21 Secritariat , 2011.
Spirić, Vesna Tomić, et al. "The Impact Of Air Pollution On Chronic Respiratory Diseases." Polish Journal Of Environmental Studies (2012): 481-490.
Suszkiw, Jan. "Kudzu." Agricultural Research (2009): 4-5.
Tolliver-Nigro, Heidi. "It is Safe to Use Paper (Again)." The Seybold Report 23 August 2010: 8-10.
United States Department of Agriculture. Invasive Species: Plants. 28 March 2012. 26 April 2012. .
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates air pollution through various policies passed through the Supreme Court. The scope of this paper is to investigate the Clean Air Act of 1970, and to analyze the impact it has on businesses and society. It provides a rationale for the policy, and contains a brief overview of governmental involvement in regulating air pollution. Further investigation identifies key stakeholders in business, government, and society, and assesses the pros and cons of regulating air pollution. Finally, the paper concludes with limitations of this analysis and recommendations for future action.
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
The term invasive species is described as a species that is introduced into an area in which it is not native. This species has the potential to cause a negative effect to the native species and other biotic factors in those surroundings (Invasive Species, n.d). Any kind of living organism can be a potential invasive species, including the seeds and eggs of an organism (Invasive Species, n.d). These species can be brought into an area any number of ways but are usually a result of human activity (Invasive Species, n.d). Although, it has been discovered that protected areas can be impacted by invasive species, possibly more so than non-protected areas (Hoopes et al., 2013).
As small mobile groups of hunter-gatherers adopted a sedentary lifestyle, they mastered both agriculture and animal domestication. These small settled groups quickly evolved into cities and towns that encompassed the entire globe. Today the estimated population of the world is over 6.2 million people.1 As the population has grown, it has had several deleterious effects on the Earth. These include climate changes, the spread of diseases, declining food production, deforestation, and environment pollution (particularly air pollution). As people have become more conscious of these harmful effects, they have begun to devise strategies to combat this problem. Among the suggested responses include a switch to renewable energy, a call for zero population growth, and adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
According to the internet human behavior has a very big affect on the environment. Environmental settings such as air pollution, oceans, energy, or noise are all sources that can negatively impact the environmental quality and conditions. Our daily routines have a huge impact on the environment and we do not realize it. New laws that are passing and educating people will help a lot. People are being educated on how to use less water, use our cars less, how to use less energy, and even taking reusable bags when going grocery shopping because plastic bags are very bad for the environment. There are simple solutions that can help in getting started with these efforts. Every little step and effort we make in our daily routines count.
There is no doubt that human activity is having a significant impact on our environment. These environmental impacts include depleting our natural resources, air and water pollution, climate change, destruction of habitats, and loss of biodiversity. Because of these growing concerns, we need to learn how to live sustainably. Living sustainably will allow us to conserve our limited resources more wisely so they will be available for future generations (Withgott & Brennan, 2011, Chapter 1).
Pollution occurs in many different forms such as, air, water, soil, radioactive, noise, heat/thermal and light. People from all around the world experience different levels and effects of air pollution. Millions of Americans live in areas where urban smog, particle pollution, and toxic pollutants are serious health concerns. If exposed to high enough levels of certain air pollutants one can experience irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and breathing difficulties are other fatal effects caused from air pollution. Air pollution is a problem for everyone and can only be fixed if everyone were to work together to help prevent it as much as
Every day when looking out a window, people see a beautiful earth. The earth is intriguing, but hinges on a delicate balance. Many natural resources keep the grass green and the sky blue. Man has made quite an impression on our world, and has transformed the earth's resources into tools to make life easy. However, mans' manipulation on earth has become detrimental to the health of our planet and the safety of mankind. Through the use and production of resources such as oil and energy, man is gradually poisoning the earth. Pollution has become such a dilemma in society; there is no real control or a feasible solution to society's recklessness. Without complete change, our system will collapse. The earth will eventually retaliate with disaster, or corporate control of our economy will cause hysteria and depression. Evaluation of the consequences and repercussion of worldwide pollution, may give people a better idea of what the future holds.
In conclusion, air pollution affects the immune system, making it weak and vulnerable to certain bacteria, illnesses, viruses and foreign invaders. Common diseases that are affected the most include asthma and allergies. Air pollution in general has been seen to modify the immune system's handling of particular allergens. The exposure to toxins like dioxin can cause serious health problems for people. Having long-term exposure to this toxin is connected to weakening of the immune system, as well as the nervous system, endocrine system and certain reproductive functions. Hence, everyone has a particular level and exposure of dioxins in the body. Improving air quality is the key answer to avoiding any type of development of disease, but it is a long term goal that will require the help and commitment at the national and global level.
The world today is vastly different from what it was before urbanisation and industrialisation had taken its toll on the world. Since the turn of the new millennium the issue of the environment has suddenly evolved into a widespread issue which is greatly discussed throughout the world. No longer are humans living in a world where the environment is serene or stable but much rather becoming unrecognisable and diminishing before our eyes. The plants, trees and flowers are life forms which God has created for us to enjoy its beauty but it is now solely up to us and many other organisations to protect preserve and respect how fragile our environment really is.
Breathing in polluted air in California alone caused 30,000 hospital visits, and approximately 325 million dollars of insurance money. In the entire world trillions of dollars are spent annually in an attempt to combat illnesses caused by contaminated air. Common symptoms caused by breathing in polluted air for a short amount of time include, chest pain, coughing, nausea, and pulmonary congestion. Diseases caused by breathing in contaminated air for extended periods of time consist of asthma, influenza, reproductive disorders, and neurological
The environment today is not in a good condition, Climate change is evident, and oceans are getting polluted. Rainforrest's are decreasing in size due to deforestation and illegal logging. Animals are getting extinct due to the destruction of their habitats. Natural resources are being consumed at very large amounts, and get wasted. There are different ways these problems can be addressed, one option is environmental management. Environmental management focuses on conservation of natural resources, protection of habitats, and impact of humans on the environment. Conservation of natural resources is the smart use of the world's resources by humans, through this waste production is limited, and there will be less garbage in the world. By conserving
Today talking about environmental issues lately to be like a common topic discussion until people take it for granted. However, the world facing a complex environmental problems related to each trouble that connected to one another and come out with greater impacts to the environment and humans. This is because the effects of environmental only can be seen in long term period rather than immediately result show up. Environmental issues must become one of the controversial matters in the society in order to make people know the truth what the world currently facing. There were a lot of environmental disaster happened such as climate change, global warming, various of pollutions, earthquake and etc. the rise of environmental issues begin with this urban development occur through several countries following with the technologies equip along. For sure, development will cause a huge negative impact to the environment if it deals without a care. Besides, the environment is the place in the ecosystem to hold and use in finding resources to continuously survive in this world. Thus, the finding and digging for the resources which happening extensively without preservation will not restore the surrounding similar with before. But then, the change cannot be refuse and people need to take an action to save the threaten the world and the ecosystem from being extinct. If each country has own output in causing an environmental problem, then consider the world to hold all the damage occurred. Exposing the effects of environmental issues throughout the world, make people realize the important to take care the environment.
Currently, the world population shows no signs of slowing and with that the demand for resources is growing as well. As these two components strain society, the urgency and need for sustainability becomes more and more important. In the near future, environmentalists hope that humans will collectively take responsibility for the harm human activities have inflicted on Earth so that the aspects of sustainability- the principles, major components, and topics of concern come to the forefront of discussion for global action before it is too late.
We all belong to the same world and all of us have the same responsibilities towards the world and its environment. This fact might be hard to digest, but if we continue to pollute the Earth at the current rate, all of the world’s ocean waters will become one-hundred-thirty percent acidic. This means that the ocean will be unable to sustain most of its marine life and only a few creatures will be able to survive in the water. A big population of people think that they do not or have few responsibilities towards the environment. People think that the governor of a country should take steps to help the environment. They leave it to scientists since they have the technology to prevent pollution, or that is what most people think. There are more responsibilities to the world each individual has than most of realize. The amount of negligence and ignorance of humans towards the Earth is taking a heavy toll.