Damage to the environment is an inevitable consequence of worldwide improvements in the

standard of living. Discuss.

The environment is the aggregate of surroundings of living organisms and natural

forces and the platform for their development and growth. It is the social and cultural force
that shapes the life of a person or population. Moreover, the environment relates to the
physical and biological factors around us. Any act performed by these factors causes certain
impact on the environment; either negative or positive. Human beings, being the most
powerful factor, perform most of the acts on the environment. Human beings have a great
history of evolution, civilization and social structure. However, the environment is bearing
the irreparable damage during this progress of human society. The improvement in one's
living standard without having negative impact on the environment has always been a topic
of concern. Some effects on the environment related to improvements in our standard of
living include air and water pollution, land contamination and damage to biodiversity. Hence,
the balance between the better standard of living and a safer environment is being unstable
which is an alarming problem in today's world.

The cleanliness and the purity of water resources are gradually being affected in the
present world. The contaminated water is a great threat to the quality of human life. Its a
common thing that industrialization and urbanization have improved the living standard of
people but the direct supply of outlets from the industries to the nearby water resources has
made the water to be unhealthy and life threatening. Natural Resources Defense Council
focuses on the fact that absence of basic protections of water resources have made them
accessible to the pollution from factory farms and industrial plants.(water 2014) In addition,
the water resources are made as dumping sites nowadays. Many people, especially of
undeveloped countries dump sewage straight into water resources mainly rivers, lakes and the
oceans. Due to this, the water becomes polluted as bacteria, worms and viruses flow in the
water. Moreover, the polluted water seep through the underground and mixes with the
underground water resources. As people rely mostly on underground water for various daily
activities, it is likely that the health of the people is bound to worsen. Water pollution not
only harms the aquatic life but harms all the other organisms as water is one of the basic
needs of living species. Along with water resources, the atmosphere, earths most precious
resource is being polluted enormously. The smoke and smog and toxic pollutants releasing
from the industries and the means of transportation mix with the air that taints the authentic

composition of the air. The air we breathe is full of toxic substances. The life span of the
human is also getting lower as people no longer get the privilege of inhaling pure oxygen.
Moreover, the ozone layer is getting depleted at an expeditious rate. The inflow of direct
sunrays is occurring in the earth. As a result, global warming and acid rain are occurring. The
temperature is rising every single year which has resulted in melting of uncapped mountains
that increases the water level of the earth. Correspondingly, acid rain is damaging trees and
making the water bodies and soils to acidify. This makes the water unfit for fish as well as
wildlife. (Health and environmental)
Meanwhile, the productivity and quality of the land is deteriorating at a rapid pace.
The ideal places for agriculture and forestation are being misused for random
industrialization and mining activities. Mining is the action of extraction of ores and materials
from the mines. Mining gives birth to many holes in the land. The land takes many years to
recover that hole. This weakens the capacity of land to absorb. In addition, the valuable
materials needed for land to sustain perish. The land gets weaker and virtually impossible for
agricultural productions. Moreover, farmers use chemicals, toxic fertilizers and insecticides
to get rid of insects, fungi and bacteria from their crops. Apparently, this leads to the impurity
and poisoning of the soil. This declines the fertility of the soil and the soil slowly looses the
capacity to yield products which ultimately is going to be the challenging factor for human
beings to battle in upcoming future. Furthermore, land contamination decreases natural
ingredients of soil which reduces plant life as well (Haluzan 2011). People, nowadays, are
enjoying better transportation facilities. Productive land is being sacrificed for better
transportation and better standard of living of people. The consequence might not be felt
entirely in current times but humans cannot escape out of it in imminent future it if not given
a severe concern. For instance, China, perhaps the most dominant country economically in
recent times has twenty percent of its farmland contaminated due to heavy toxic metals. As a
result, millions of hectares of farmland is bound to be quailed from production(Dominguez
2014 ). This is the biggest and the most relevant proof of the effect of industrialization on the
land today. There are every possibilities of scarcity of healthy crops if the trend continues in
this very manner. The viral diseases spread in a jiffy. This can conclusively lead to increase
in human mortality. The land pollution is taken as one of the primary factors for the
increment in the rate of cancer diseases in world recently. Furthermore, the wildlife are in
danger due to land pollution. According to the Marine conservation Home, the species such
as bald eagle, peregrine falcon and brown pelican got extinct due to synthetic chemical DDT

used on land that reduced their reproductive capacity.(Davis) The mismanagement of the
waste is one of the inputs of land pollution. Garbage are not properly disposed. The dumping
sites are not properly set up. People are unaware of disposable and non- disposable wastes.
This vastly contributes in polluting land. The blow of failure in using plastic grants a bigger
scope for land contamination.

Similarly, the components of food chain either plants or animals are being the victim
of unplanned urbanisation. The eco-system is hugely rattled. Disturbance in the eco system is
one of the costs of urbanisation. The artificial world is slowly overcoming the natural world.
The engineers of globalisation have overlooked the social, biological and physical driving
forces on their unnatural beauties. This has raised a serious quest on the continuance of
human society in upcoming years. The extinction of various species is not a surprising thing
for us. Moreover, various species are listed as endangered species and many other species are
being pushed to that unpleasant list. Animals such as Amur Leopard, Bengal Tiger, Blue
Whale and

Green Turtle are in the verge of permanent disappearance. These are few

members of baffling list of endangered species of animals(WWF 2014). Similarly, species of

plants such as Chaff tree, Nightcap oak, Chestnut Leek-orchid and Pearlwort are bound to
disappear in near future(WWF 2014). These are also some of the many species that are being
pushed to march towards being extinct from the world. Their natural environment is being
impaired. It's quite disheartening for those innocent species to lose their home by external
agents. This situation has disturbed the natural food chain enormously. The food chain is
made in such trend that in absence of one component, rest of the components have to suffer.
Human activities are slowly affecting the natural balance. People are ignoring to the fact that
the tiniest of organism which may be microscopic has certain role to play for the well being
of their life. Such food chain prevails in the nature. People construct huge buildings, routes
for transportation and other projects on the environment. These activities require huge space.
For this, people chop down the trees which destroy the habitat of the living organisms.
Humans are facilitated with huge space to stay, bigger malls to shop and better transportation
facilities but it's a empathy situation for the other living organisms who are being homeless
and gradually moving towards being out of identity. People are constructing dams for
production of electricity and irrigation. The migration of fishes and other aquatic creatures is
hugely affected by it. The natural flow of river is being disturbed. Similarly, oil spills are

causing serious impacts on coastal and marine environments. The sea is being polluted and
with it the sea creatures are having short life span. This is a huge and demanding concern in
the present world.

To sum up, the living standard of people is improving at the costs of various precious
elements of the nature. The time has already come to think about it seriously for each
individual of the world. The governments of many countries have initiated various programs
for the conservation of the nature but it is not enough. Every individual has to take it as their
own responsibility to care for the world to care for themselves and the generations to come. If
the nature gets destroyed, then our habitat gets destroyed. If this trend continues then we,
human, ourselves create a platform for our own extinction. Hence, the world has to unite
together to fight against this problems and come to a clear solutions so that every organisms
can live happily in their own natural environment.

References:
Haluzen

N.

(2011).

Soil

pollution

facts.

Retrieved

November

18,2014,

from

http://pollutionarticles.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/soil-pollution-facts.html

2014.Water, Retrieved November 17 2014, from http://www.nrdc.org/water/

WWF
Species
Retrieved
November
19
2014,
from
http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory?direction=desc&page=2&sort=extinction_sta
tus