What environmental problems are there

Intensive food production harms the environment by depleting the soil and damaging marine ecosystems. What's more, overexploitation of natural resources has put food safety and the availability of drinking water at risk. The UN considers it essential to change the food production model and our food habits, including a more plant-based diet featuring local ingredients to save energy and reduce CO 2 emissions. The UN has called for conclusive actions to put an end to these threats and conserve our natural heritage, including our increasingly threatened forests.

The growth of cities , which will need to accommodate around 5 billion people by , will be another of the decade's big environmental challenges. The metropolises of the future will need to be compact, safe, inclusive, ecological and energy efficient, with more green spaces , more environmentally friendly buildings and more sustainable methods of transport which put the needs of pedestrians above those of traffic. What will society be like in ? The responsible use of hydrological resources will improve food and energy production, as well as protecting the biodiversity of our water ecosystems and helping us slow climate change.

Global warming is causing increasingly frequent, intense and devastating droughts, hurricanes and heatwaves. Keeping temperatures stable, as has been championed in negotiations at the highest level, as well as improving our capacity to respond to climate emergencies, are the keys to minimising the number of these catastrophes, adapting to them, and defending ourselves from them. The UN expects the world population to exceed 8. Skip to main content. This puts the entire ocean food web at risk.

Listed below are some measures which can help prevent water pollution and ocean acidification :. Loss of Biodiversity Biodiversity helps maintain the balance of the ecosystem and provides biological resources which are crucial for our existence.

Habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, secondary extinction and introduced species are a few ways in which humans are wreaking havoc on the biodiversity of this planet.

Loss of biodiversity can be countered in a number of ways:. Awareness and adaption are two key steps towards conserving this boon called environment. Each one of us can and should do their bit to curb the effects of these environmental issues and ensure that our future generations have a healthy planet to live. Three Environmental Issues and Ways to Combat Them For years now, humans have mistreated and contaminated the very environment that sustains them.

By Erich Lawson Nov 25, For years now, humans have mistreated and contaminated the very environment that sustains them. Small farmers and gold prospectors have settled along the gash cut through the jungle, pushing out the original inhabitants from their traditional areas of settlement. The gold rush is threatening their lives. Hundreds of Yanomami have died from diseases brought into their areas by prospectors. In June this year, the Brazilian army destroyed illegal airstrips in the nearly 9.

Black gold: In the middle of the 'Alto Rio Guama' reservation, jungle giants like these disappear in round ovens. The illegally felled trees are turned into charcoal. This aerial image was taken from a police helicopter during a patrol in September Problem: On land, wild animals are being hunted to extinction for bushmeat, ivory, or "medicinal" products.

At sea, huge industrial fishing boats equipped with bottom-trawling or purse-seine nets clean out entire fish populations. The loss and destruction of habitat are also major factors contributing to a wave of extinction - unprecedented in that it is caused by a single species: humans. Not only do species inherently deserve to exist, they also provide products and "services" essential to human survival. Think bees and their pollinating prowess - necessary for growing food.

Solutions: Concerted efforts need to be made to prevent further loss of biodiversity. Protecting and restoring habitats is one side of this - protecting against poaching and wildlife trade is another. This should be done in partnership with locals, so that wildlife conservation is in their social and economic interest.

The American black bear is one of more than 22, species threatened with extinction. During the past century, animals have been disappearing about times faster than they used to, scientists from different American universities warned in a new study. According to the WWF, around 70 species go extinct every day. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature - which publishes a "red list" of threatened and endangered species - 41 percent of amphibian species and 26 percent of mammals are facing extinction.

This Titicaca water frog, found only in Lake Titicaca in South America, used to be present in the millions in the early s. By now, they have disappeared almost completely. The causes of species loss are mostly manmade. They range from climate change, to pollution, to deforestation and beyond.

About 2, trees have been cut down every minute during the past 40 years, according to a different study. The world is embarking on its sixth mass extinction event, the current study concludes. The modern rate of species loss was compared to "natural rates of species disappearance before human activity dominated. The study is based on documented extinctions of vertebrates - or animals with internal skeletons - from fossil records and other historical data. These results are estimations, since humans don't know exactly what happened throughout the course of Earth's history.

In earlier extinction events, such as the Ice Age, only two out of 10, mammals died out per century - such as this primordial horse. As species disappear, so do crucial services, such as pollination of crops by honeybees. At the current rate of species loss, humans will lose innumerable biodiversity benefits within three generations, the study's authors write.

If the current rate of extinction is allowed to continue, "life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on," wrote lead author Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico. The study calls for "rapid, greatly intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species, and to alleviate pressures on their populations - notably habitat loss, over-exploitation for economic gain and climate change.

Problem: Overgrazing, monoculture planting, erosion, soil compaction, overexposure to pollutants, land-use conversion - there's a long list of ways that soils are being damaged. About 12 million hectares of farmland a year get seriously degraded, according to UN estimates. Solutions: A wide range of soil conservation and restoration techniques exist, from no-till agriculture to crop rotation to water-retention through terrace-building.

Given that food security depends on keeping soils in good condition, we're likely master this challenge in the long run. Whether this will be done in a way equitable to all people around the globe, remains an open question. The number of organisms living in a handful of soil outnumber all humans on the planet. They ensure that the humus layer stores nutrients and water.

After oceans, soils represent the planet's largest carbon bank. Soils store more carbon than all the world's forests combined. As cities around the world expand, fertile land is disappearing under concrete and asphalt. Microorganisms are suffocated under this artificial surface, and above it rainwater flows away rather than seeping into the soil.

Like human skin, the Earth's sensitive surface needs protection from the sun, wind and cold. Large areas can dry out, and ploughing can dislodge the top layer so that it is blown away by the wind. Depletion of the soil through deforestation, over-fertilization and overgrazing can turn land into desert.

Climatic factors like drought become a catalyst in a chain reaction - that is set in motion by human activity. Monoculture plantations need large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides to remain productive. Some types of pesticides also harm the natural soil biota, reducing the soil's fertility.

Whether resulting from industrial leakage, disaster or weapons, or from years of over-fertilization: once soil is contaminated, fixing the damage is costly and time-consuming.

According to official sources in China, nearly one-fifth of agricultural land there is contaminated. The earth is also dug up to get to raw materials. This photo from Germany shows how brown coal mining strips away the topsoil.

Through resource extraction, land that could provide wildlife habitat, or be used for agriculture or human habitation, is lost. It takes 2, years for nature to produce a centimeter 4-inch layer of fertile soil that holds water and nutrients, and where plants can grow.

To protect fertile soils worldwide, the United Nations has declared International Year of Soils. Problem: Human population continues to grow rapidly worldwide. Humanity entered the 20th century with 1. Estimates put us at nearly 10 billion by Growing global populations, combined with growing affluence, is putting ever greater pressure on essential natural resources, like water.

Most of the growth is happening on the African continent, and in southern and eastern Asia. Solutions: Experience has shown that when women are empowered to control their own reproduction, and gain access to education and basic social services , the average number of births per woman drops precipitously.

Done right, networked aid systems could bring women out of extreme poverty, even in countries where state-level governance remains abysmal.