As a human race when we need something we generally search for it, and sometimes in the process of looking for what we need, we alter our environment . We alter our environment to find ourselves shelter, for example humans clear land to build houses which allows us to have shelter. We alter the environment to make ourselves food, clearing out land (again) allows us space to raise animals and plant crops. When finished with things that we consume we throw it out into the environment usually, this alters the environment by polluting it. We as humans pollute quite a few thing the air, water and even if it is not polluting it still effects the earth greatly cutting down forests.
We pollute water because to power our automobiles we use oil and when transporting oil, spills are very likely to happen. There is also overfishing which doesn't really pollute but it definitely alters the environment because it mixes up the food chain causing changes and extinction. Dumping trash into the sea is another factor of this problem, when our landfills get to full we take trash out to sea and leave it there instead. This trash is harmful to animals and sometimes if litter, which is trash but in smaller quantities, finds it's way into the sources from where we get our drinking water and then this can harm us. Even though we benefit from the fact that we get power from the oil and other resources like fish, the bigger picture is we still destroy the ocean.
We cut down trees to benefit us, they give us wood which lets us build various structures and different objects that help us in everyday life, for example paper, paper comes from trees but to attain those trees we have to cut them done which is altering our environment on a bad way. Clearing these trees allows us to raise animals and plant crops, we can also use it to settle and put up shelter. This may be all fine because we get our products but altering the environment in such a way can lead very bad consequences. For example trees give us O2 and they take in CO2 and if we cut down trees well it is sort of obvious that there is then nothing to take in CO2. Also when you cut down trees you cut down an animals home and without a home, or shelter animals cannot survive.
We pollute the air by letting different gases, like those from our cars our into the open air. Cars are one of the biggest contributors to air pollution, but others things are urned to make this fuel needed to power many things. Once this fuel has been burned it never simply disappears, it goes up into the atmosphere, this then causes air pollution. Once these gases are in the air, a variety of things can happen. Usually these gases add on to the ongoing problem of the greenhouse effect, where gases are trapped inside the earths ozone causing the planet to heat up. Sometimes these gases come down as acid rain or something along the lines of that. Whatever the effect it usually is not very positive.
To sum it all up, humans in there path to fulfill our own needs usually do not alter the environment in a very good way. Somethings that I didn't really touch in the categories are thing like the thinning of the of the ozone layer which is a caused by air pollution and hunting of animals which decreases populations when they are over hunted or as a stated before over fished. So humans can effect the environment in many different ways the intentions are not always bad but the consequences can be.
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