Lesson 2.04 Human Impact on Ecosystems

• Introduction
• Learn
• Try It
• Task

Introduction

You have learned how the world's population has changed over time with the dawning of different agricultural, industrial, medical, and technological advancements. You have examined how the human population is distributed on Earth and how populations of different regions of the earth change based on different demographical characteristics. In this lesson, you will see how human population growth affects all areas of the biosphere.

The English poet John Donne (1572-1631) best describes humans' impact on the environment:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less...

Remember that all parts of the environment are connected and affect one another both directly and indirectly. As human numbers grow, the human impact on the environment increases.

With human population on the rise and resources being used and polluted at an ever increasing rate, it is estimated that 1.5 Earths are currently needed to meet human demands. At this rate, humans are using resources at a rate that the Earth will not be able to sustain indefinitely.