Facts At Your Fingertips: The living world – Human influence
Human activity is changing environments across the world.
We are damaging many natural habitats to meet our growing demands for food, energy, land, and other resources.
We are also adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels such as oil, and this is changing our atmosphere and may be causing global warming.
Habitat destruction
Many forests have been cut down to make use of the wood and to clear land for agriculture. This destroys the forest habitats and also reduces the number of trees in the world.
Trees take carbon dioxide from the air, so cutting them down increases the level of this gas in the atmosphere, contributing to dangerous climate change.
Reducing the impact
There are many ways in which we can reduce the impact of human activity. By planting trees, we replace the ones that have been cut down.
We can also reduce our impact by recycling (using again) anything we might normally throw away.
Conservation
The destruction of habitats has left many species of plant and animal endangered. This means that they are close to becoming extinct.
Scientists and conservationists study how these species live and grow to see how they can be saved from extinction.