Environmental degradation?

Question

what is the root cause of environmental degradation?

Answer 1

Degrade means to reduce the quality.  Degradation of the environment occurs when events or processes occur that reduce the quality of the environment, the environment being the natural world and how it exists at a given place.

Man's activities are the primary source of environmental degradation.  Destruction of natural environments by deforestation, expanding urban areas, conversion to farms, chemical wastes discharged to the air, water and ground, sewage, litter, overfishing, selective destruction of an animal or plant species (killing off the buffalo for example)-these are all ways that man can cause environmental degradation.  There are many others.

Natural processes also are a cause, but typically we consider natural causes to not be degradation, but rather natural progression.  

You should note that the term "degradation" has an aspect of personal viewpoint.  Whether the environment is improved or degraded is a judgement-only the observation of change is non-judgemental.

For example, the destruction of forests in the eastern US could be interpreted as an act of environmental degradation-the natural environment was severely modified by this process.  However, the destruction of the forests opened up many new environments to life and enhanced the viability and distrbution of many plants and animals including man.  I suppose that was environmental degradation but that is an arguable point.

Dumping toxic chemicals into a pond is hard to argue as anything but environmental degradation.  The environment becomes less habitable, less useful and more harmful, for pretty well all life.

Answer 2

You have to define environmental degradation for a decent answer. I'll just guess something though.

Environment- the natural state before human impacts.

Thus, the root cause of environmental degradation is the presence of people.

Of course, the solution to this is something no one will like, so different definitions may be needed.

Answer 3

Environmental degradation means damage to the environment caused by means of human beings,natural calamities etc.The main cause for this is the activities performed by  human beings.