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environmental degradation — English
The human-induced, progressive loss of an area’s ability to sustain life. Air pollution, water pollution, overgrazing, overcultivation, soil erosion, injudicious mining practices, warfare, vegetation destruction (see “deforestation”) and any other human-induced (anthropogenic) deterioration of the natural production potential and carrying capacity of an area could be the cause of environmental degradation (see “carrying capacity”). Any one or more of the abovementioned causes, could degrade a certain portion (area) of the environment to such an extent that no living organisms (including microbial life) could survive there. All forms of life existing today are to a greater or lesser degree adapted to the environment they live in. Should that environment change faster than the organisms (including humans) can evolve, mass extinction of life on Earth will ensue. Humans have been changing the environment for a few million years, but as a result of the vast increase in the human population and its staggering technological advancement during the past 150 years, enormous change is currently being wrought upon the environment. In the final analysis environmental management is aimed at preventing irreversible environmental degradation. Should our recent attempts at environmental management fail, we would probably degrade our environment to a point where it cannot sustain life anymore and life as we know it would cease to exist. It is important to note that this environmental degradation is a human-induced process, not a natural one. Natural processes of environmental change do not degrade the environment, it slowly changes the environment and the evolution of most forms of life can change or evolve to adapt to the altered environment. This has been happening for at least 3 500 million years, but human activities are responsible for an accelerated rate of environmental change, and we are not at all sure what such fast alteration is going to cause. (See “extinction” and “natural selections”.)
