THE 6 MAIN ANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES AND THEIR EFFECTS - ENVIRONMENT - 2024

The human activities are those inherent to humans that may affect cycles and the balance of nature. Many of these activities, due to their magnitude, can cause great alterations, putting at risk the existence of various organisms on the planet, including that of the human being himself.

Historically, the magnitude of the impact of human activities on the environment was accelerated since the end of the 18th century, with the so-called Industrial Revolution. In recent decades, our impact on ecosystems has increased in such a way that some specialists have called the present epoch of the planet as the Anthropocene.

Release of gases by industrial activities. Source: www.flickr.com

Main anthropic activities that affect the environment

The main anthropic activities degrading the environment are associated with the industrial production of products, goods and services destined to satisfy the demands of a growing population, with unsustainable consumption patterns.

Activities for the production of goods and services require increasing amounts of energy, water and various raw materials, which exceed the limits of the planet.

Power generation and consumption

The generation of energy to satisfy anthropic systems includes activities related to the capture of primary energy, its conversion into derived energy (electricity and thermal) and its final use.

Three primary energy sources considered renewable are the kinetic energy of air (wind), the kinetic energy of water (hydro) and energy from solar radiation.

However, the main source of energy today is fossil fuels (natural gas, oil and coal). More than 85% of the energy consumed in the world comes from fossil fuels.

Another non-renewable energy source with high pollution risks used today is the nuclear fission of chemical elements such as plutonium or uranium.

The current model of energy consumption is unsustainable. Fossil energy, coming from the biomass of dead organisms accumulated for thousands of years in sedimentary basins, is highly polluting of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Agriculture and agribusiness

Crops, whether destined to produce food for direct consumption by humans, for feeding animals (livestock and aquaculture), or for the production of other products other than food, generate a high impact on ecosystems.

Since the emergence of the green revolution in the mid-20th century, agricultural activity has become an activity with a high ecological impact.

Industrialized agriculture requires the massive use of pesticides (fertilizers and biocides). Likewise, it has a high demand for fossil fuels destined to machinery for planting, harvesting, transporting, processing and storing production.

The irrational use of resources in urban centers

Cities and their urban developments involve complex interactions with the environment. Cities, which are home to half the world's population, consume two-thirds of global energy and produce 70% of the world's carbon emissions.

Large cities, especially in so-called developed countries, have the highest consumption and waste generation rates on the planet.

Consumption levels associated with large cities represent one of the anthropic activities that affect the environment. Source: www.flickr.com

It is estimated that the waste generated in 2016 around the planet exceeds 2 billion tons, and the production of solid waste in the world is projected to increase by 70% in the next three decades.

Likewise, large urban centers are characterized by their high demand for drinking water and consequent generation of wastewater.

Transport

This component involves both human mobilization and transportation of materials for the production, distribution and trade of food and other goods and services.

Transportation vehicles, powered mainly by fossil energy, in addition to the pollutants of combustion, involve a wide range of pollutants such as lubricants, catalysts, among others, with high environmental impact.

Thus, water, land and air transport manages to pollute the soil, air, rivers and seas.

Mining

The extraction of mining resources, either as a source of energy, or as a source of raw materials for an increasingly demanding technological industry, is a highly polluting and impacting activity on the environment.

In order to extract the elements of interest from the environment, highly toxic chemicals are used, such as mercury, cyanide, arsenic, sulfuric acid, among others. These are generally used in the open air and discharged into the beds of rivers and aquifers.

Wars and the war industry

Unfortunately, among the most polluting factors on the planet is one of humanity's great problems: war and the associated war industry.

The action of explosives not only causes the death of flora and fauna, it also destroys soils, which take hundreds and even thousands of years to regenerate. Likewise, they produce fires and pollute surface and underground waters.

The attack on strategic objectives, in numerous wars, has caused the burning of plastic factories and other synthetic products with the consequent release of highly polluting gases.

Likewise, oil extraction wells have been bombed, generating catastrophic spills that pollute the waters and exterminate the diversity of life.

Gases and other pollutants released

Gases

Different anthropogenic activities produce pollutants that include chlorofluorocarbon gases, reactive gases, and greenhouse gases.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are gases used in refrigeration chains, known as ozone layer degraders.

Reactive gases are nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds. Also aerosols and solid or liquid particles, such as nitrates and sulfates.

Greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and tropospheric ozone.

Heavy metals, metalloids and other chemical compounds

The main heavy metals are mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, and arsenic, which are highly toxic. Other lighter metals such as aluminum and beryllium are highly polluting.

Non-metallic elements such as selenium are pollutants from spills from mining or industrial activities.

Metalloids such as arsenic and antimony, coming from the application of pesticides and urban and industrial wastewater, are an important source of water pollution.

Agricultural and livestock products

Biocides (herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides and miticides) and fertilizers are highly toxic and polluting. Chlorinated pesticides and nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers stand out.

Likewise, unmanaged excreta from breeding animals are organic residues with the capacity to ferment (purines), highly polluting sources of surface running water.

Effects edit

The effect of gases in the atmosphere can be of three types: 1) destruction of the components that protect living beings, such as the ozone layer, 2) emissions of elements that are directly harmful to health, and 3) emissions of elements that alter the weather. Each of them with its consequences.

The ozone layer is capable of absorbing a significant percentage of ultraviolet radiation. Its loss increases the radiation that reaches the earth's surface, with its corresponding consequences in the generation of cancer in human beings.

The concentration of high amounts of harmful elements such as toxic particles and molecules, cause respiratory diseases, allergies, skin conditions, lung cancer, among others.

On the other hand, the so-called greenhouse gases in natural conditions prevent the emission of infrared radiation into space. Significant increases in these gases, such as those that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution (where CO ₂ has increased close to 40%, methane more than 150% and nitrous oxide close to 20%), have resulted in increases drastic temperatures that compromise life on the planet.

Other effects

Agrotoxics affect human health and biological diversity. In humans they produce innumerable affections; genetic malformations, cancer, respiratory diseases, among others.

Inorganic nitrogen pollution causes acidification of rivers and lakes, eutrophication of fresh and marine waters, and direct toxicity of nitrogenous compounds to humans and aquatic animals, among others.

For their part, heavy metals from mining extraction and various industrial activities can cause innumerable diseases in humans and animals, many of them still unknown and emerging, among which are neurological disorders and genetic mutations.

References

1. Wikipedia contributors. Environmental impact. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2019.
2. European Environment Agency. (2018). Fluorinated greenhouse gases. Report 21, 74 pp.
3. IPCC, 2013: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp.
4. IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 157 pp.
5. United Nations Environment Program. (2012). GEO 5: Global environmental Outlook. 550 pp.