Why is the impact of human on the enviroment greater today than at any time in the past?

Question

Why is the impact of human on the enviroment greater today than at any time in the past?

Answer 1

It's not genious, it was much worse during the industrial revolution, we have laws today. The only place it's worse is China. But Al Gore is qualified to say the env. is worse if it furthers his politcal gain right?

Answer 2

It is because of industrialization, which has polluted our environment.  As industrialization expands, our environment becomes more and more polluted.

Global warming itself is caused by the increasing pace of industrialization throughout the world.  India and China are now industrializing in much the same way the United States did in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

They are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide and chemical pollutants released into our atmosphere.  Many ocean fish, for example, are now dangerous to eat because of mercury coming from coal-burning plants.

Soon the United States will be competing with China and India for diminishing supplies of petroleum.  This could be the principal cause of an eventual third world war, which will most likely be fought with nuclear weapons.

There is nothing like exploding hydrogen bombs to radically alter the environment.  If enough of them are detonated, they would give rise to a catastrophe as bad as the one caused by the asteroid that crashed into the Caribbean sea off the Yucatan peninsula and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

I myself think that the human race is already extinct, but we are in a state of denial about how we are causing our own extinction.  By the time we understand how we are destroying ourselves, it will be too late to do anything about our fate.

Life will continue evolving as new plants and animals fill the same old ecological niches on our planet.  But we will no longer be part of the ecosystem.

This, from our point of view, will be the most radical environmental change of all.  From the point of view of the ecological system of our planet, it will be just another change in the course of biological evolution.

Harleigh Kyson Jr.

Answer 3

In the first place, the world's population is greater than it has ever been before. People are living longer and infant/child mortality is way down...more people for the planet to support.

Also, the "advanced" technologies and business techniques have lost the respect for our environment that man used to have. It doesn't matter what happens in the long term--make the money NOW. Who cares if our grandchildren have no earth to live on. That's the attitude. Historically man lived closer to the earth and was more aware of its vital rhythms because we were more in contact with nature. Now, everything is prepackaged and artificial. Man lives farther from the earth than ever before, which means his relationship to it is more tenuous.

Rampant consumerism means "I want what I want" and who cares about consequences. Mankind has become a race of spoiled, demanding children in the "first" world--and silenced, disenfranchised slaves in the rest.

Answer 4

You cant be serious about this question! So Einstein, how is life today different from that of say 50 years ago? THAT is your answer.

Answer 5

Basically, population, industry and technology.

Though we are finding ways to reduce the pollution with industry, it still effects it.

And with population, the demand is higher, meaning more things to be made.

Adding to the industry.

Answer 6

Population.

That and the effect humans have had on the environment is cumulative; the damage done in the past, for the most part remains today.