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Course: Middle school Earth and space science - NGSS > Unit 5
Lesson 3: Human impacts on the environmentHuman impacts on the environment
Review your understanding of human impacts on the environment in this free article aligned to NGSS standards.
Key points
- Humans impact the environment through their activities. Examples of human activities include land and water use, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels.
- In many cases, the impacts of human activities are negative. For example, when humans clear forests, it causes habitat loss and puts other species at risk.
- Negative human impacts increase as the population grows. They also increase as the average person uses more natural resources.
- Science can help identify solutions to reduce our impacts on the environment. However, it is up to us—as individuals and as a society—to put these solutions into action.
Want to join the conversation?
- how did the water just suddenly dry up??...🧐(21 votes)
- Global warming is part of the problem but thats not all. Humans over use water for produce, livestock,and humans use water to wash and drink. Does this help?(28 votes)
- Where is the water?(9 votes)
- What you are looking at is the aftermath of illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest. There is likely groundwater in the soil, but the now desolate area you see was once full of lush, exotic trees, plants and brush, all native to only the Amazon rainforest. With the trees, go the animals, either by force or of the animal's choice. This is a very saddening image, because they replace the beautiful tree's they've ripped out, with palm trees, which are not native to the area, nor beneficial to any of the wildlife in the area.
You can flip back to the Khan Academy videos on ecosystems, what has happened here, is human beings have destroyed part of an ecosystem. This is also why it is so important to have good conservation and protection efforts, because you are part of the ecosystem too.(22 votes)
- how many animals are there?(7 votes)
- approximately 8.7 million(18 votes)
- Why does it have any grass(7 votes)
- There is no grass because of global warming and human usage. All the water has either evaporated or has been used by humans.(9 votes)
- how many animals are there? and where the water??(9 votes)
- 4 and there is no water(4 votes)
- I know that smoke is hazardous to our health, but how can salt be unhealthy?(4 votes)
- Is there anyway to fix this(3 votes)
- Yes. We have to take care of our planet, it is the only one we have.(5 votes)
- what type of animals live here(5 votes)
- What would happen if we decide not to try and clean up Earth? How would it impact are everyday life?(5 votes)
- Why don't they destroy the dams that they put up that were a part of the problem when drying up the water? I get that its also not that easy to do that, but could they?(3 votes)
- 1) If they destroy a dam thats already built, it can suddenly release water and can flood the place around it.
2) Dams can drastically alter the ecosystem of the rivers they are built on. Removing them can cause a lot of disruption(4 votes)