Republic of the Philippines

DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

MID LA UNION CAMPUS
City of San Fernando 2500 La Union
E-mail : mluc@dmmmsu.edu.ph
Website : http://www.dmmmsu.edu.ph
Telefax : (072) 700-54-53
________________________________________________________________________ . . . designing change! ____________

NATURAL ECOSYSTEM AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES THAT AFFECT NATURAL ECOSYSTEM

What is an Ecosystem?

Ecosystem encompasses all living things (animals, plants and microorganisms) and non-living things
(earth, climate, soil, sun, weather, and atmosphere). All these components make up the environment and they
are critical for the natural and normal functions of all the activities on the planet. In short, they are the foundations
of the ecosphere and influence the health of all the systems on earth.

For example, ecosystems determine the niche played by each and every organism and how they interact
with the non-living things such as water, light, air and climate. It’s otherwise said to be an intricate and
interconnected system where living and non-living things function.

Due to this intricacy and interconnectedness, any activity that disturbs the natural balance of these
components affects the ecosystem. Anthropogenic activities top the list as there are numerous human actions
affecting this balance.

Humans interact with the world around us every day, but some of our actions are more harmful than
others. As our population approaches 7 billion people, the effects of human activities on the ecosystem, including
the water, air, land and the life that we share the world with, are almost immeasurable.

Various Human Activities That Affect an Ecosystem

1. Agriculture

With the ever increasing number of the world’s population, there is similarly a soaring demand for
sufficient food. The population growth rate is hence driving the world to clear forests in order to create more room
for agriculture. Based on data by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 40% of earth’s
surface now supports agriculture, and a bigger fraction of these lands were formerly covered by forests.

Destruction of wildlife:

Forests are critical habitats for wildlife and as ecosystems supporting the intricate relationship between
living and non-living things, they have been adversely affected by agricultural practices. A larger percentage of
Europe, for example, was densely covered with temperate forests but with time it has been cleared to make
room for farm land.

For every corn field you see, chances are good there was once a forest in its place. As our population
continues to increase, humans create more and larger farms, which means removing the dwindling number of
forests. Forests are also cleared for the lumber that we use to build our houses and to make room for new
houses. About 18 million acres of trees are clear-cut every year for wood. This has devastating effects for the
wildlife that once called those forests home.
 Deforestation occurs when a forest or stand of trees is removed, converting the land to a nonforest use.
This changes the ecosystem drastically and results in a dramatic loss of biodiversity. Deforestation can be the
result of timber harvesting or of clearing land for agricultural, commercial, or residential use. The loss of
biodiversity and trees alters the ecosystem and can result in aridity and erosion. It also results in climate change
and extinction, and it can lead to desertification if on a significant enough scale. The social impacts can include
displacement of indigenous peoples.

Everyone knows that trees create shade and that the air around a tree tends to be cooler. This is partly
because the tree transpires water into the atmosphere. When the tree is gone, the surrounding air is drier and
hotter. This makes it harder for foliage and plants that depend on water and the shade from trees to survive.

Tree roots help bind the soil and prevent it from washing away. When the roots are no longer there, soil
erosion can become extreme, especially during heavy rainstorms. Catastrophic landslides can level houses, and
large soil displacement events can make land unusable for building as well as for agriculture.

Pollutants in soil, most often from industrial sources, deforestation and improper waste disposal, put
animals and plants in danger. Soil polluted by chemicals eventually becomes infertile and unable to support
crops and other plant life. This hinders food production and can lead to malnourishment in local communities. If
soil pollutants produce contaminated food, anyone who eats it may become ill. Toxic soil may also cause illness
through skin contact or inhalation.

The international scientific community has known of the negative effects of deforestation for many years,
and Brazil, one of the countries that is most affected, acted to curb it in 2004. Despite those efforts, the
deforestation rate has been increasing at an accelerating rate. In 2016, the deforestation rate in that country
exceeded the rate recorded in the previous year by 29 percent. Previously, the rate had increased by an average
of 24 percent from year to year.

Brazil is home to the Amazon basin and its rainforests, but it is by no means the only country with
deforestation problems. Honduras has lost half of its forest cover and Nigeria has chopped down all but 10
percent of its trees. The Philippines, Ghana, Indonesia and Nepal are among many other countries that have
been perilously deforested. The trees are cut primarily to clear land for cattle lots and small agriculture, but
logging is still an important economical activity in many places. In addition, forest fires claim billions of trees each
year. In 2016, they accounted for a forest cover loss equal to the area of New Zealand.

The effects of deforestation are significant, not just for the countries that lose trees, but for the global
community as a whole. They include loss of habitat for animals and people, soil erosion, drier air and a warmer
planet.

Trees are an important carbon sink. A single tree can absorb 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. It also
filters the air by absorbing other pollutants. When the tree is gone, the carbon dioxide it would have used for
photosynthesis either remains in the atmosphere or gets absorbed by the oceans, which are becoming
increasingly acidified and less able to absorb more. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It helps create a
"ceiling" in the atmosphere that prevents ground heat from dissipating into space. In other words, deforestation
leads directly to global warming, which is one of the most serious ecological issues facing modern humanity.

About a dozen different species go extinct every day, and scientists predict that 30 to 50 percent of all
species could be extinct by the middle of the 21st century. This is one more of the calamitous effects of
deforestation. Cutting trees removes the habitat for tree-dwelling animals, birds and insects, and global warming,
to which deforestation contributes, kills fish and amphibians as well as other creatures. Loss of habitat also
creates social issues for people who live in the forest who must relocate to inhabited areas.

Not only does deforestation contribute to global warming by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in
the air but it also directly increases the temperature radiating from the land. The forest canopy shades the ground,
absorbs the sun's rays for photosynthesis, and reflects about 12 to 15 percent, cooling the land beneath. This
holds moisture in the soil that carries nutrients through the roots into the plant. Plants then release water vapor
into the air through their leaves in a process known as transpiration. A single leaf can release more water into
the air than its own weight. Water vapor in the air accumulates and falls as rain, cooling the land and carrying
nutrients back to the plants. Without forests, the land would radiate and reflect heat back into the air, adding to
global warming. It is estimated that trees in tropical rainforests lower the temperature by 3.6 to 6.3 degrees
Fahrenheit. In the past century, the average temperature around the world has increased by 1.4 degrees
Fahrenheit.

Desertification is the degradation of land quality and features low biodiversity, dry conditions, and poor
soil quality. Deserts are formed through both natural processes and human activity. However, desertification is
occurring at a greater rate than past geological time scales due to human activity. The concept of desertification
became well known in the United States in the 1930s, when parts of the Great Plains in the United States turned
into the “Dust Bowl” as a result of drought and poor agricultural practices

Global warming and climate change:

Population growth-influenced deforestation is to blame for three billion tons of CO 2 released into the
atmosphere each year which is equivalent to the destruction of 13 million hectares of land annually as put forward
by Union of Concerned Scientists. This rate of deforestation affects the ecosystem by raising global temperatures
and disrupting the cycle of condensation and evaporation. Various ecosystems such as the Polar regions are in
turn affected by the rising global temperatures and changes in atmospheric water cycle.

Environmental scientists have been warning us for decades that the CO₂ emissions that come from
burning fossil fuels are affecting the planet’s ecosystem. The increase of CO₂ in the atmosphere traps heat that
would otherwise escape into space, increasing the Earth’s overall temperature. This has caused Arctic ice and
glaciers to melt and raise ocean levels. The loss of reflective ice and increase in water, which absorbs heat, adds
to the rising temperatures in a cycle that is predicted to cause ocean levels to rise 1 to 4 feet by 2100.

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to sustainability. It is a controversial and contested topic.
As highlighted in the previous section, the earth’s climate does fluctuate over time due to a variety of factors.
However, there is a significant body of scientific research that indicates that global temperatures are rising and
that rising global temperatures are directly linked to human activities involving the emissions of greenhouse
gases (GHG). GHG traps heat in the atmosphere allowing the planet to be a habitable place. The primary GHG
of interest is carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a vital gas in our earth system and is released from various sources,
including the combustion of fossil fuels. Over the last two centuries, rapid industrialization and the corresponding
increased burning of fossil fuels and deforestation of large tracts of land globally has caused the concentrations
of greenhouse gases to increase significantly in our atmosphere. Current atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
exceed the natural range observed over at least the last 800,000 years and are rapidly rising.

In January 2012, global carbon dioxide levels reached a high of 393 parts per million (ppm) at the Mauna
Loa Observatory in Hawaii. This was up from 391 ppm from January 2011 and continues a long-term trend of
rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The Mauna Loa Observatory has been performing continuous
monitoring of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1956.

Some greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, occur naturally and are emitted to the atmosphere
through natural processes and human activities. Other greenhouse gases (e.g., fluorinated gases) are created
and emitted solely through human activities. Not all greenhouse gases have the same impact. Global warming
potential (GWP) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere. GWP is
standardized to carbon dioxide, which has a GWP of one.

The principal greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere because of human activities—also called
anthropogenic—are as follows:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2; 72 percent of anthropogenic emissions; GWP of one)—emitted through the burning of
fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), solid waste, trees and wood products, and chemical processes.
 • Methane (CH4; 18 percent of anthropogenic emissions; GWP of twenty-five)—emitted during the production
of coal, natural gas, and oil; from livestock and other agricultural practices; and by the rotting of organic waste
in municipal solid waste landfills.

• Nitrous oxide (NxO; 9 percent of anthropogenic emissions; GWP of 298)—emitted during agricultural and
industrial activities as well as during combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste.

• Fluorinated gases (< 1 percent of anthropogenic emissions; HFC-23 has a GWP of 14,800)—emitted from a
variety of industrial processes and sometimes used as substitutes for ozone-depleting substances (i.e., CFCs,
HCFCs, and halons). Although fluorinated gases are typically emitted in smaller quantities, they are potent
greenhouse gases sometimes referred to as high global warming potential gases (“high GWP gases”).

Average global temperatures have increased 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1850, with the trend in
warming in the last fifty years being almost double that of the prior one hundred years. The twentieth century’s
last two decades were the warmest in four hundred years. Current projections have global temperature further
increasing by a significant two degrees to twelve degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Temperature increases of this
magnitude will adversely affect the planet through rising sea levels, shrinking glaciers, changing of the range
and distribution of plants and animals, lengthening of growing seasons, changing of weather patterns, and
human health effects. People are affected by climate change through extreme periods of heat and cold, storms,
climate sensitive diseases, prolonged and increased levels of smog, and economics (e.g., volatility in retail
prices; resource scarcity; and changing work patterns, conditions, and incomes.

Changes in global temperature are impacting the global climate in significant ways, including the
following:

• Mountain glaciers and snow cover have declined significantly, contributing to rises in sea level. For example,
Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere,
thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

• Sea levels will rise dramatically. Thermal expansion has already raised the oceans four to eight inches (ten
to twenty centimeters). There is a possibility for a three-foot sea rise by the end of the century, which would
flood many cities along the US seaboard.

• Average Arctic temperatures have increased at almost twice the global rate in the past one hundred years.
Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or
earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea’s ice loss.

• Increased precipitation has been observed in the eastern parts of North and South America, northern Europe,
and northern and central Asia.

• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical
storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts. Examples of these types of extreme
events are already occurring with greater frequency, including recent flooding in Nashville and extreme
droughts in Russia.

• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—
or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent.
Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next fifty years as sea
temperatures rise. Coral systems are rich ecosystems providing breeding grounds for sea life and are major
recreational draws. The loss of these vital resources has a devastating economic impact on local economies.

Current science suggests that to significantly reduce the threats of global climate change, worldwide
reductions of carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent below current levels will be required by 2050.
 In 2008, global carbon dioxide emissions were 4.8 metric tons per capita. The highest per capita emission
was Qatar with 49 metric tons per capita caused by their high emitting gas production sector and their small
populations. The United States was the tenth highest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide emissions at 17.9
metric tons per capita. Even though China had the highest absolute level of emissions, it was ranked seventy-
ninth at 5.3 metric tons of CO2 per capita. Per capita emissions are on average higher in developed economies
than emerging economies. Countries that were members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) had average emissions of 10.5 metric tons per capita while countries that were classified
by the United Nations as the least developed countries had per capita missions of 0.24 metric tons per capita.

It is important to note that there are those that deny the significance of climate change on the human
condition and the impact of human and business activity on climate change. Climate change denial dismisses
the scientific consensus on the extent of global warming, its significance, and its connection to human behavior.
As will be highlighted in the next chapter, climate change denial has been mostly associated with the energy
lobby and free market think tanks, often in the United States.

A 2010 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS)
reviewed publication and citation data for 1,372 climate researchers and drew the following two
conclusions:William R. L. Anderegg, James W. Prall, Jacob Harold, and Stephen H. Schneider

1. Of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field, 97 percent to 98 percent support the tenets
of ACC (Anthropogenic Climate Change) outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

2. The relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are
substantially below that of the convinced researchers.

Aquatic resources degradation:

The injection of vast amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen nutrients into natural soils, lands and water
systems due to fertilizer use have created far-reaching effects, altered ecosystems, and rapidly expanded
aquatic dead zones.

Pollutants in water resulting from trash, oil spills, sewage spills and run-off from agricultural fields,
construction sites and factories affect native plant and animal species. Drinking contaminated water caused by
sewage overflow may cause sickness and digestive problems in humans. Pollutants such as mercury in fish and
seafood can lead to serious health problems, especially in children and pregnant women.

When water is poisoned, many animals die. Six months after the 2010 BP oil spill, which affected 16,000
miles of U.S. coastline, over 8,000 animals were reported dead. Animals are also often injured or killed by solid
waste discarded in water.

2. Plastic production

The invention of plastic has created one of the most problematic pollution problem ever witnessed on the
face of earth. Waste plastic is everywhere on earth even in the oceans. Plastics remain in the environment for
thousands of years and have long-lasting consequences on the fragile ecosystems and regulatory cycles.

In the late 1990s, the scientific community began to gain awareness of a massive Pacific Ocean current
that was filled with tiny bits of plastic waste -- a swath of ocean that was eventually dubbed the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch. The area is one of many garbage-filled oceanic regions called gyres, which are hold significantly
more garbage than the surrounding ocean. These gyres are formed by a confluence of currents that funnel our
trash into higher concentrations. While gyres are the most prevalent example, plastic trash is found in almost
any part of the world's oceans.

Presently, the world produces nearly 300 million tons of plastics yearly and 20% to 40% of this winds up
in the landfills with 10 to 20 million tons finding way into the world’s oceans, interrupting aquatic life. Plastics
floating in the world oceans are estimated to amount to 5.2 trillion weighing a total of 268,940 tons based a
research study done by World Watch Institute.

The chemicals present in the plastics are released in the waters, interfering with animals endocrine
systems and changing their reproduction patterns. They can also cause rapid cell division which may result in
cancers. Above all, since the plastics remain in the oceans for years and years, they can ultimately reverse
ecosystems with damage costs approximated at 13 billion US dollars in a year.

Wildlife is most affected and some have even died after consuming unusually great amounts of plastics.
A whale found dead in the coast of Scotland in June 2017, for example, had consumed nine pounds of plastic
causing blockage in its digestive tract. To make the matters even worse, more than 4,000 cases of fish with
plastics in their bodies have been recorded worldwide.

Discarding plastic products, including grocery sacks, rapidly fills up landfills and often clog drains. When
plastic litter drifts out to sea, animals like turtles or dolphins may ingest the plastic. The plastic creates health
problems for the animals including depleting their nutrients and blocking their stomachs and intestines. Animals
cannot break down plastic in their digestive system and will usually die from the obstruction. Pieces of plastic
can also get tangled around animals' bodies or heads and cause injury or death.

According to Project GreenBag, approximately 20 percent of the plastic trash in the ocean gets there
from either sea-going vessels or offshore platforms. The rest is either blown in from land or dumped directly into
the water. All of this trash is slowly adding up. A 2012 study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at
University of California, San Diego found that the size of the Pacific Garbage Patch has increased 100-fold over
in the past 40 years to about the size of Texas -- and this is just one gyre. The rest of the world's oceans are
also accumulating more and more plastic.

However, most species are negatively affected by the flow of plastics entering our oceans. A 2008 study
in the journal "Environmental Research" found that approximately 44 percent of all seabirds have eaten plastic
and nearly 270 marine species are negatively affected by the garbage. Besides posing a physical hazard to the
digestive tracts of fish, plastic bits in the Pacific Ocean can absorb and concentrate organic pollutants such as
PCBs and DDT from the surrounding seawater. These pollutants have been known to cause cancer and birth
defects and disrupt many of the body's tissues and organs. They are also passed up the food chain when
predators, such as humans, eat prey that has been contaminated.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a waste product that becomes a form of pollution if not properly managed.
MSW is more commonly thought of as garbage, refuse, or trash. Solid waste is not necessarily toxic but includes
discarded materials that need to be properly processed and disposed. Examples of solid waste include
household trash, used tires, discarded appliances, furniture, paints, and construction and demolition debris.

In 2008, the United States generated 389.5 million tons of solid waste. Only 24 percent of the waste was
recycled, 6 percent was burned to produce energy, and the remaining 69 percent was landfilled.“State of
Garbage,” BioCycle, October 2010. With 70 percent of waste being sent to landfills, there is still considerable
opportunity for waste recovery for recycling or as an energy source.

Energy can be recovered from landfill sites through different forms, such as methane gas. Methane gas
can be used to generate electricity or be burned as a heat source. However, the vast majority of waste is being
disposed of, even though it contains resources (metals, plastics, and paper) that could be reused or recycled to
reduce the demand on new resources. For example, cardboard that is recycled helps reduce the demand for
trees to be cut down to make new cardboard.

The EPA encourages MSW to be managed through source reduction, recycling, and composting. Source
reduction involves taking steps to reduce the waste material produced. This can include using materials more
efficiently, reusing materials, or switching to substitutes that generate less waste. The average US recycling rate
is 24 percent but has the potential to be considerably higher. There are opportunities for new sustainable
businesses to better manage solid waste, including increasing the recycling rate and composting.
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has one of the highest numbers of restaurants per capita in the country
and these restaurants generate a large volume of food waste that is expensive to dispose of. Entrepreneurs Rian
Bedard and partner Marcel Miranda saw this waste as an opportunity and formed Ecomovement Consulting and
Hauling (http://zerowastenow.com/) in 2009. Bedard stated, “I started to find out that no one was offering zero-
waste services and everyone wanted it.”

Customers pay for compostable bags and put the food waste in a recycling tote outside, which are then
collected regularly by Ecomovement. The food waste is then brought to a local farm to be converted to compost,
a high-value soil component sought after by gardeners and landscapers. In addition to restaurants, other large
food waste generators have signed up with Ecomovement, including hospital cafeterias. In North America, only
two cities can boast that all of their restaurants compost, but with an entrepreneurial company finding a niche
missed by traditional waste management companies, Portsmouth is well on its way to becoming the third.

3. Emission of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases

The emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases namely methane and hydrofluorocarbons
(HFCs) are human induced through combustion of fossil fuels and the use of man-made products. In a bid to
generate energy, the world has continued to depend on carbon-rich fossil fuels namely gas, oil and coal.

The combustion of these fossil fuels to produce energy in the years between 1870 and 2013 produced
approximately 400 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Today, carbon dioxide levels are said to
be surprisingly higher than ever in history. As a result, global temperatures are in the rise contributing to sea
level rise and extreme weather events like heat waves, flooding, tsunamis, and droughts. The sea level rise and
extreme weather events have in turn altered ocean and land ecosystems, impacted food chains and biodiversity,
and intensified desertification.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nitrogen oxides, methane, carbon dioxide and
fluorinated gases are considered the primary greenhouse gases. High levels of these trap energy from the sun
in the earth's lower atmosphere. This causes increasing average temperatures across the globe, greatly affecting
climate patterns. Ice-cap and glacial melt, combined with thermal expansion of warming oceans, is predicted to
cause significant sea-level rise by the end of the 21st century, flooding many low-lying coastal areas. Warming
temperatures may also severely disrupt sensitive arctic ecosystems, contribute to increasing desertification and
affect weather patterns that humans currently depend on for agriculture.

Greenhouse gases, like fossil fuels released by vehicles and factories, and methane, released by
livestock, contribute to air pollution and add to climate change by raising the earth's temperature. In a vicious
circle, climate change then makes a certain type of air pollution worse. A reaction between combusting fossil
fuel emissions and sunlight creates smog, a yellowish or blackish fog also known as "ground level ozone."
Climate change also creates more allergenic air pollutants, such as mold caused by damp conditions and pollen
caused by a longer pollen season and increased pollen production.

Air pollution can have a serious heath impact on humans. If you are exposed to very high levels of air
pollutants, you may experience irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, wheezing, coughing and breathing
problems and have a greater risk of heart attacks. Air pollution can also exacerbate existing lung and heart
conditions, like asthma. Smog can irritate the eyes and throat and also damage the lungs. Children, senior
citizens and people who work or exercise outside are at a greater risk. Those most at risk are people with asthma
or allergies because pollutants can make their symptoms worse and trigger asthma attacks.

When fossil fuels are burned, multiple chemicals and organic compounds are released into and
generated by chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Some of these include mercury, sulfur oxides, methane,
nitrogen oxides and most importantly, carbon dioxide. Mercury often falls back to the ground when released from
burning coal, poisoning fish and threatening food chains, including human food supplies. Sulfur, nitrogen and
volatile organic compounds react with oxygen and other naturally occurring gases in the atmosphere,
contributing to the phenomenon of acid rain. Acid rain can seriously damage forests and contaminate soils,
making them less suited to productive agriculture.
 Across the world, climate change leads to more drought, heat waves, rising sea levels, storms, warming
oceans and rising sea levels, which affect animal species by destroying their natural habitats.

4. Destruction of the reefs

Ocean reefs are the globe’s richest oceanic ecosystems but human activities have led to their destruction
by upsetting the natural flow of nutrients and energy that support plant and animal species in the marine world.
Water pollution, climate change, overfishing and acidification of marine waters are the repercussions of human
activities that have caused the destruction of coral reefs.

Coral reef destruction is defined as the degradation (and potential mass death) of the ocean’s corals. It
is normally caused by illegal fishing techniques, pollution, careless tourism, other natural phenomena such as
earthquakes and hurricanes, and of course, climate change—the culprit responsible for our warmer oceans and
the main reason (according to experts) behind the death of nearly half of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals.

Corals are living organisms—they can get sick and die, just like any other plant or animal. Due to a variety
of local and global factors, which can be either independent or interacting, more and more of the world’s reefs
are dying.

Experts say that one-fifth of global reefs are already destroyed and one-fourth of reef species might go
extinct by 2050. Further, the livelihoods of about 500 million people globally depend on the coral reefs for survival
because these are the critical growth and reproductive areas for many fish species.

The reefs simply provide shelter and productive grounds for aquatic species and upon their degradation
or destruction, they stop providing the essential materials for a vibrant interconnectedness that is necessary for
supporting specific aquatic ecosystems. The reason for this is that the destroyed coral reefs are mainly
dominated by jellyfish and bacteria, which limits the capacity for sufficient regulation of energy and nutrients.

Reef bleaching occurs when extreme water conditions cause corals to expel the internal microorganisms
that give them their vibrant colors. Bleaching events are attributed to a number of factors, including pollution and
extreme low tide, but the most common (and widespread) is the change in water temperature thanks to global
warming. As the planet heats up, water temperatures tend to rise as well.

It is unfortunately common practice to use cyanide and other poisons to fish for coral reef dwelling
creatures. The poison is not specific enough to necessarily kill a specific fish, but is used to stun fish that are
then used in domestic saltwater aquariums. Although many fish can metabolize the cyanide and will only feel
the effects temporarily, the same is not true for coral polyps. When cyanide gets in the nooks and crannies of
the reef, the coral often dies in the cloud of poison.

In Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, dynamite or blast fishing is still
commonly practiced. As the name suggests, this is when fishermen use explosives—usually crude and
homemade ones—to make it easier for them to catch more fish.

5. Production of Black carbon

Black carbon particles have been generated by human activities for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Black carbon particles are materials emitted into the atmosphere as smoke and are produced from cooking with
solid animal fuels, burning firewood, diesel car exhausts, and the burning of trees. The presence of these
particles in the atmosphere creates a heat-absorbing layer that gives rise to increased global temperatures, thus
compounding the global warming effect.

Nations heavily dependent on diesel fuel, coal, and burning of wood or cow dung fuel for heating and
cooking are the biggest emitters of black carbon. Black carbon has also changed weather patterns and reduced
rainfall in West Africa and south Asia according to various science reports. It has also played a role in the melting
of the glaciers in the Himalayan region, threatening ecosystems and water supplies for millions people.
6. Draining streams/rivers and destruction of critical fresh water aquifer recharge areas

Various anthropogenic activities have heavily destroyed fresh water supplies such as rivers, streams,
and aquifers. Intensive agriculture is a leading cause on the account of the large amounts of chemical fertilizers,
herbicides and other agro-chemicals that find way into waterways.

Intensive agriculture is also water intensive thus over-drains rivers and degrades critical freshwater
aquifer recharge areas. The construction of man-made dams and water-diversion for irrigation or during
infrastructural construction has also made the natural flow of water in rivers and streams inefficient. As such,
these practices have gradually destroyed fresh water recharge capabilities, increased salt intrusion, and changed
local weather patterns in turn affecting local ecosystems such as forests, lakes and wetlands.

Increased salt concentration in lakes has made it difficult for some fish species to survive. Furthermore,
most of the world’s lakes that supported a wide range of diverse animal and plant species have shrunk by more
than half of their original sizes just because of over-draining rivers and the destruction of fresh water aquifers.

7. Overhunting and overexploitation

Overhunting and overexploitation of natural resources through activities like overfishing and mining have
caused a reduction in the number of varied plant and animal species. In other words, the diverse existence of
animal and plant species in different habitats has been widely affected by overhunting and overexploitation.
These human activities do not give room for the replenishment, growth, or new development of already exploited
or harvested products.

Overhunting can cause extinction, destroy natural reserves and breading areas, and affects food chains.
Therefore, whenever any living thing or native species that plays a part in an ecosystem is taken away in large
quantities or becomes extinct, the entire ecosystem suffers and can be permanently altered. Also, when humans
convert forests into farmlands or river basins into mining areas, the areas are made harsh for the survival of
animal and plant species.

Overexploitation is a major threat to ecosystems and therefore sustainability. It is the consumption of a

natural resource at a rate greater than that natural resource can maintain itself. Overhunting of species (see
“What Happened to All the Fish” as follows) is one of the clearest examples of overexploitation, but there are
other forms. Land degradations are human-induced changes that impair the capacity of the land to sustain life.
Deforestation and overgrazing exploit the land and result in the exceeding of sustainable yield.

The Grand Banks along the shores of Newfoundland, Canada, were once so full of cod that explorer
John Cabot remarked in 1497 that they appeared so thick that a person “could walk across their backs,” and
sailors reported to be able to catch them just by throwing buckets over the side of the ship. From 1850 to 1950,
the fishing industry yielded an overall annual catch of about 200,000 tons of cod. With new technology in
commercial fishing boats, catches of cod increased in the late 1950s and early 1960s, peaking at 800,000 tons
in 1968. Commercial fishing was catching cod faster than their stock could replenish itself, and by 1975, the
catch had declined to 300,000 tons. The catch continued at approximately this level through the 1990s but only
through the use of more damaging fishing techniques. In 1992, the cod fishery off Newfoundland collapsed. It
was estimated that the entire cod population in the Grand Banks at that time was only 1,700 tons. In response,
Canada set an indefinite moratorium on fishing in the Grand Banks. This collapse devastated the local economy
with the loss of forty thousand jobs in the fishing industry. In response, the federal government put up nearly a
$1 billion to assist with social welfare payments and retraining of people employed in the fishery trade.

The case of the cod in Newfoundland illustrates how the unsustainable harvesting of a resource, when
the yield reduces the overall base of that resource, is not only bad for the environment but also bad for industry
and for the economy. Overfishing and habitat destruction damaged nature’s ability to provide fish in the Grand
Banks. This resulted in a loss to a significant portion of the eastern Canadian economy and the members of the
fishery communities experienced true hardship due to the overfishing. Prior to the overfishing that occurred
during the second half of the twentieth century, the fish had supported seaside communities for hundreds of
years.

8. Genetic modifications

The globe’s escalating demand for food products has prompted scientist to resort to the use of genetic
modified organisms (GMOs) to increase crop yields so we can feed our populations. GMOs also comes with the
advantage of being more tolerant to extreme temperatures, the ability to flourish with less water, and better ability
to resist parasites and diseases.

On the other hand, GMOs also comes with new biological elements that can impact natural ecosystems
in numerous ways as reported by different environmental groups. One is changing the natural ways of
competition or predation. Secondly, soil microbial populations regulating the flow of phosphorous, nitrogen and
other important elements can equally be impacted. Thirdly, the genetic materials can be transferred to other
native populations. All these GMO concerns can irreversibly terminate life at some point – a chance of “total
ecocide” as reported by Global Research (Centre for Research on Globalization).

However, modifying plants has not always been intentional. For example, continued use of herbicides,
like glyphosate, has caused many weeds to become immune to their effects. In fact, 249 species of weeds are
now immune to all normally used herbicides. The only way to get rid of them is to till the soil, which exposes the
soil to sunlight and kills the organisms that help make the land fertile.

IPAT Relationship

Human population growth is a factor in human ecosystem impact. From 0 AD to the present, global
population has increased from three hundred million to seven billion. While population growth was once
considered to be one of the leading drivers of human impacts on ecosystems, it does not adequately explain all
the impacts that come from human activities. One concept that is useful in understanding the multiple factors
that interact to impact environmental quality is the IPAT equation. The equation was developed in the early 1970s
by scientists John Holdren and Paul Ehrlich to explain the human factors that create environmental impact.

I=PxAxT

Impact (I) was expressed as the product of population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T). This formula
doesn’t quantify actual impacts, but is meant to state relationships. Also, P, A, and T are not independent
variables but are interdependent. It does not show a simple multiplicative relationship among the main factors;
research has shown that a doubling of population, for example, does not necessarily lead to a doubling of impact.
Affluence is related to consumption where more affluent societies are able to consume more resources than less
affluent societies can. Technology is a more complex factor as it can provide the means to extract greater
quantities of resources but also can be used to limit consumption of resources.

The IPAT equation does not identify sustainable limits but does assist in increasing understanding of the
general factors that increase or decrease environmental impact. By highlighting the interplay among a variety of
factors in creating an impact, the IPAT equation demonstrates that there are multiple ways of reducing
undesirable effects.