In layman’s terms, the natural environment primarily refers to all things that occur naturally without human intervention, whether living or non-living. Human beings depend on the natural environment for survival. However, with industrialization and development over the years, we have impacted the natural environment in several negative ways.

Human impact on the natural environment

• Overpopulation. The situation is quickly approaching the maximum capacity that the planet’s natural environment can sustain. This has caused great environmental degradation as more space is created to accommodate the surplus population.
• There is practically no single place on the earth where pollution is not a problem. Human activities have led to pollution of the natural atmosphere which has caused other several issues in areas like health.
• Global warming. This has been the most severe impact to the natural environment. Large emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere mainly through the burning of fossil fuels have caused the earth’s temperatures to increase continuously.
• Climate change. With global warming, there has been a significant change in the world’s climate. The dry places have become drier, and the wet places have become wetter. Weather patterns have also changed across the globe.
• Genetic modifications. We have affected the natural environment’s vegetation by coming up with genetically modified organisms. These are crops that have been selected and bred using DNA which gives them an added advantage. This has led to the emergence of super weeds which affect the natural vegetation.
• Water pollution. Our habits of polluting our natural water resources have led to contamination of the water, making it unfit for human consumption and vegetation growth.
• Deforestation. The natural environment has been affected by the large volume of forests that have been brought to the ground. That has affected even the soil due to soil erosion.

Conclusion

It is of vital importance that we take care of our natural environment. Once we have destroyed it, there will be no chances of renewing that which has been naturally given to us. Everyone should, therefore, take it upon themselves to take care of every aspect of the natural environment, for our sake and the sake of the future generations.

By Winnie