Our Environment Contents

2. Impacts

Human activities carry fundamental implications for the global environment

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The global environmental consequences of human development are leaving the Earth not merely modified, but fundamentally transformed. There is barely a corner that is now not being managed. Clark (1986) adopts the analogy of the Earth today as being "more like a garden than a primeval forest". This garden image emphasises the human use of the Earth for productive purposes. It also emphasises the need for continued nurturing and vigilance to maintain it in a particular way, and the existence of critical limitations - knowledge, physical limits and resources - which prevent humankind from getting all that might be wanted out of it.

Can you think of other examples of how human activities are affecting the environment?