Suggest ways to minimize human impact

on the environment
S8LT-IVj-25

MELC
Human Impact on the
Environment
 Trade off
 Humans have both positive
and negative impacts on the
environment.
 Main reason for the negative
impact is the human population
is increasing.
 This places increasing
demands on natural resources
such as food, water, energy
and space.
 There is no easy solution and every solution
has both + and – consequences.
 Trade off: when a solution has both
negative and positive consequences.
 A consequence is something that naturally
follows from an action
 Consequences can be both positive and
negative.
 Finite Resources.
 Finite resources: resources that will eventually
run out.

 Interrelationships
The Earth has limited resources to support life.
 The increasing human population is depleting those
resources.

Ex. Pollution decreases the amount of oxygen in the

air.  
Renewable vs. nonrenewable

 Renewable resources are resources that

are being replaces faster than we can use
it up.
 Example: wood, solar radiation

 Non-renewable resources: something

being used faster than it can be replaced
 Example: oil, coal, natural gas
 Some Detrimental (harmful)
Human Activities
   Human activities can alter the
balance of an ecosystem.   
 This destruction of habitat, is
threatening the stability of the
planet's ecosystems.   
 the damage to the ecosystems
may be permanent.  
 Ways Humans Adversely Influence Ecosystems
1. Population growth: Too many people using
limited resources
2. Over consumption: Industrialized societies
are using more resources per person from
our planet than people from poor nations.
3. Advancing Technologies: we introduce
technology without knowing how it will
influence the environment
4. Direct Harvesting: a large loss of rainforest
and its biodiversity.
 5. Pollution: pollution has had many adverse
influences on air, water and land.
 6. Atmospheric Changes: Greenhouse gases
due to the burning of fossil fuels and depletion
of our ozone layer.
7. Endangered species: species are
threatened to extinction due to habitat
destruction. 
 Invasive Species
 Importing foreign organisms have caused
problems for native organisms (one’s already
living there).  
 They are know as an invasive species AKA
exotic species. 
 This is a species not native to an area, it was
imported.
 They are bad because they can out compete
the native animals causing them to go extinct.
 Some times they have better tools for that
environment.
 Sometimes they lack
predators and their
populations increase to
high levels. Then they
eat all the food and native
species go extinct.
 They tend to disrupts the
natural food web that has
been there for many
years.
 Invasive species in Australia

 examples of exotic species

having negative effects
include rabbits imported into
Australia.  
 These exotic species won
the competition with many
native herbivorous
marsupials killing them off
 Invasive Species to NY
 Snakehead fish:
 Native to Asia and
Tropical Africa
 Imported as aquarium
pets and as a food
source.
 Released into the wild
 It breathes air
 It can crawl out of water
for miles to find the next
water source
 Huge predator and out
competes other native
fish
 Makes lots of babies
and breeds quickly.
 Not predators so many
survive
 They are now illegal to
own.
 If you catch one in the
wild, you must report it
to the DEC.
Three major environmental problems
include:
I. Global Warming
II. Acid precipitation (rain)
III. Ozone depletion
 I. Acid Precipitation
 Most acid rain in New York State is caused by sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen dioxide pollution from the burning
of fossil fuels such as coal and oil.  
 They combine with water vapor in the atmosphere and
fall back to the earth over New York as acid
precipitation.
 Some Problems Associated With Acid
Precipitation
 Streams and lakes becoming more acidic,
killing fish, frogs and other life.
 Damage forests and plants and
deteriorates buildings
 What can be done?
 We can burn low sulfur coal
 We can use alternative energy sources
such as solar panels for electricity and hot
water heaters.
 We can heat our house with geothermal
wells.
 Geothermal well: well drilled deep into the
earth to release heat naturally created.
Geothermal well
Acid precipitation
 II. Global Warming
 Burning fossil fuels and
other pollution increases
the amount of CO2 in the
air
 Fossil fuels include
gasoline, coal and oil.
 This can potentially
increase the earth’s
temperature.
 Carbon Dioxide is also known as a Greenhouse
gas   
 the increase in level of carbon dioxide and other
gases is not allowing infrared or solar heat
radiation to escape the planet back into outer
space.  
 This is causing our planet to slowly warm.  
 Consequences of Global
Warming
 Rising sea levels and coastal
flooding
 Changed rain patterns
resulting in droughts and
crop failures
 Increase in insect diseases in
regions
 Ex. New York State: warmer
winters fail to kill the disease
carrying insects like West
Nile
What can be done?
 Decrease use of fossil
fuels, including
electricity.
 Use alternative forms
of energy such as
solar panels
 Car pool to work, take
public transit.
 III. Ozone Depletion

 Ozone is another form of

oxygen. You breath O2.
 Ozone is O3. you do not
breath this.
 Ozone decreases the
amount of solar radiation
that reaches the earth from
the sun, also known as UV.
Hole in the ozone layer
What causes Ozone depletion

 Use of CFC’s or chlorofluorocarbons

lowers ozone by breaking up O3
 CFC’s are used in some aerosol cans (not
as much any more)
 They are also released from some
refrigerators and air conditioning systems.
 Consequences: skin cancer, cataracts.
 Actions being taken by humans to reduce or
repair damage to the environment include:
 1.  Recycling wastes
 2.  Conserving available resources
 3. Using cleaner resources (ex: solar over fossil
fuels)
 4.protection of habitats and endangered
species
 5. use of biological controls instead of
pesticides and herbicides
 6. Farming native plants (ex: cocoa in the
rainforest)
 7. Planting trees to replace those cut down.
 8. Rotating crops or planting cover crops to
reduce soil loss. 
 9. passing laws to control pollution, land
management, hunting and fishing
What part of the food chain do you
think is most affect by toxins?
Producer
Primary consumer
Secondary consumer
Tertiary consumer

Why?
Biomagnification

 Biomagnification: the increased

concentration of a poison that moves up
the food chain.
 It can start at the plant level.
 Many little fish eat the plants and get the
toxins.
 Then a large mouth bass eats hundreds of
little fish and gets more toxins.
 A human fisherman catches several bass
with already higher level toxins
 He eats them all and gets even more.
 He may accumulate so much toxin that is
causes cancer or some other disorder
 This happens in the Hudson River.
 Central Hudson has dumped tons of toxins
including PCP’s in the river.
 Much of the toxins settle in the bottom soil
or sediment.
 Politicians try to correct this by dredging
the river or scoop out the bottom
sediment.
 It stirs the toxins back into the water
causing more problems.
 Human action often has negative consequences for
the ecosystem and humans too.  Here are some and
they ways the affect our ecosystem.
 For each of the following ecological problems, identify the
specific cause, their negative effects on the environment, and a
way that people are trying to fix the problem:
 1. acid rain
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

 2. deforestation
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

3. Loss of diversity:
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

4.Global warming
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

5.Introduced (invasive) species
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

6. Industrialization:
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

 7. Nuclear Power
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

8. use of chemical fertilizers

Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix:

 9. burning fossil fuels
Cause:

Negative effects:

How we are trying to fix: