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Global Environment and Future
There is difference of opinion on ‘Pristine Environment’ – Some feel ‘environment undisturbed and not changed (environment as is); others feel that humans are not considered part of environment. Change is something which has been induced by humans hundreds or thousands of years ago. One cannot however isolate humans from this broad environment.
Primitive humans banked on natural resources for their basic needs of air, water, food and shelter. The natural and unprocessed resources were available in biosphere and even residues after resource use were compatible with or easily assimilated by the environment.
Agriculture happens to be world’s oldest and largest industry with more than half of the population still live on farms. An outline of effects of Agriculture activities on Environment may perhaps throw an indication of complexity:
“The effect of agriculture could be grouped into Local/Regional and Global changes. Local changes occur at or near the site of farming which includes soil erosion and increase in sedimentation downstream in local rivers. Fertilizers carried by sediments can cause eutrophication and polluted sediments transport toxins and impact on aquatic life. Regional changes include deforestation, desertification, and large scale pollution. Global changes include climate change and changes in chemical cycles”.
Environmental degradation has been accelerated with the development of social activities – agriculture, industrialization, drugs and pharmaceuticals, transport, civil construction (roads and buildings) due to growing population - all influencing environmental degradation. More importantly, the assimilation capacity of the earlier days gave little scope for any understanding of environmental degradation – it is only when it crossed limits that humans started paying attention to it.
It is not a single factor that has impacted environment – depletion of coal and petroleum (Overuse), mining of various other minerals, dams, buildings (unplanned), urbanization and industrialization has all contributed to the current state of environment. In addition, migration from the rural area is increasing, mismanagement of sewage and garbage and lack of drinking water have compounded the problem.
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