WHAT IS ANTHROPIC? - ENVIRONMENT - 2024

Anthropic is the name by which everything that results from human activity and its consequences is known. It is also called anthropogenic and refers to the processes that result from human activity.

The anthropic is the opposite of natural processes in which there is no human intervention. It is normally associated with the negative, insofar as it refers to the effects that human action produces on the environment.

The most representative fields in which anthropic or anthropogenic action is perceived are: construction, industry, mining, agriculture and transportation.

All of them arise and evolve thanks to human action, and all of them cause consequences in the environment that humans inhabit.

These consequences, sometimes negative, are called anthropogenic action and, ultimately, it would be the cause of climate change to which planet Earth is subjected.

Fields in which anthropogenic action exists

Construction

As part of human evolution, cities and roads were built that connected them to the population, as well as other communications infrastructures: ports, railways, underground subways, etc.

All this led to human intervention in the landscape. To build all these infrastructures it was necessary to cut down trees, flood natural spaces or artificially divert the riverbed.

The industry

The effect of industry on the environment encompasses many possible effects caused by released gases or wastes. Each type of industry - heavy, chemical, oil, etc. - has certain effects on the environment.

Among the most common are air, water, and soil pollution and the expulsion of polluting gases and wastes into the atmosphere or into the natural environment - rivers, seas.

Mining

Of all the industries in which humans intervene, mining deserves a separate chapter due to the variety of consequences it causes. The most obvious is the alteration of the soil to create the underground galleries.

In addition, surface waters are redirected to the mines and mineral waste is generated. Also, during the transformation process in the refineries, leaks of gases that pollute the atmosphere and breathable air are recorded.

The Agriculture

With the excuse of making the land more fertile, human beings carry out actions in favor of agriculture that harm the environment. First, forests are turned into farmland through deforestation.

Also, the use of pesticides and fertilizers, with many chemical components, damages the soils causing irreparable damage. As if that were not enough, poor drainage can cause salinization of drinking water suitable for human and animal consumption.

The transports

Highways, highways, high-speed railways, and airports are seen as intrinsic to human progress. Communications between towns are becoming faster and easier thanks to advanced infrastructures.

But progress comes at a price: to shorten distances you have to build roads that cut through forests; For a city to have an airport, it must be located in a specific area where a lot of concrete must be used on the previously fertile soil, etc.

To this must be added noise and exhaust pollution and gas emissions from all types of vehicles that run on fossil fuels.

References

1. Anthropogenic Climate Change on Global Greenhouse Warming, at global-greenhouse-warming.com.
2. Anthropogenic Climate Change: Definition & Factors on Study.com, at study.com.
3. Human impact on the environment on Wikipedia, at wikipedia.org.
4. "Anthropogenic climate change", Hans von Storch.
5. "Climate Change and Human Development", Hannah Reid. (2014).