Man Vs. Nature Conflicts
Humanity’s progress, particularly since the mid-19th century, has been largely the result of our ability to get and use what planet Earth has to offer. All told, the food we eat, the timber we cut, and the water we draw amounts to an astounding one-third to one-half of global ecosystem production. But humans are part of nature, and like every other species on the planet, we depend upon healthy ecosystems for our survival. Nature provides us essentials like clean water, food, medicines, even recreational retreats.
Intact ecosystems also help regulate our weather and climate. But these systems are extremely fragile, and we’re only now beginning to understand the myriad interactions and interdependencies that sustain them. And we know that once they are gone, there are no replacements. Changing our behavior and needs to preserve these Earth’s ecosystems will be neither easy nor inexpensive. But if we are to feed, clothe, and care for ourselves into the future, taking drastic steps will be essential.
Man – Nature Interaction
Man and nature interact dialectically in such a way that, as society develops, man tends to become less dependent on nature directly, while indirectly his dependence grows. This is understandable. While he is getting to know more and more about nature, and on this basis transforming it, man’s power over nature progressively increases, but in the same process, man comes into more and more extensive and profound contact with nature, bringing into the sphere of his activity growing quantities of matter, energy and information.
Why exactly do we humans have such an incredibly large influence on other species and the natural world? We are unique among animal species in that we survive and reproduce in a wide variety of environments through cultural adaptations. In contrast, other species are primarily able to survive and reproduce due to biological adaptations that result from eons of natural selection and biological evolution. The cultural adaptations of humans have allowed them to colonize nearly every ecosystem type on Earth. In addition, cultural innovations have allowed the human population to grow exponentially for millennia.
Such sustained population growth is unparalleled by any other species on the planet. The population of a typical species grows until it reaches the carrying capacity of its environment, then levels off or declines. In other words, it grows until it is fully utilizing the available resources, such as food and space. At this point mechanisms such as disease and starvation keep the population from continuing to grow. However, we humans have responded to resource scarcity with cultural practices and technologies that increase the availability of resources.
We raise our food on farms and live in multi-story apartment buildings, increasing the carrying capacity of the environment for humans. This growth eventually requires yet more cultural adaptations to increase resources, and the alteration of the natural environment and the rate of cultural evolution is accelerated. Currently, the global human population is large enough and the technologies that allow humans to manipulate the environment are potent enough that human-caused alterations to the biosphere are causing the extinction of innumerable wildlife species.
If present trends continue, there will be an eventual crash in the human population that will bring great suffering and cause widespread environmental damage. This is the root cause of the modern environmental crisis. This deals with how we got into the present situation from the perspective of cultural interactions with wildlife and wildlands – coflicts conflict can be explained as the struggle between two class or group. In this essay we can see the differences that are a raised between man and nature.
Since nature from the birth of earth the nature had a major role-playing in every single aspect of living life on earth. as man develops slowly by improving day by day the destruction of nature started. Man learned to develop the seed which helped both the environment by improving it’s greenery and man by his efforts. Man vs nature conflict occurs when a particular character is opposed to natures forces. It is the conflict between nature itself, and mankind as we continue our relentless expansion, coupled with our overwhelming lack of compassion for any other form of life.
A prime example of one such battle is that which currently rages in The Serengeti National Park. Currently, the Tanzanian government, despite earlier reports to the contrary, intends to pave the road which runs across 50 km of the park. The annual migrations in this region involve more than 1. 5 million animals, primarily wildebeests and zebras. These annual migrations are considered one of the great natural wonders of the world. The paving of this road would have dire consequences, both to the migrating herds and the local environment itself.
The effects could be devastating to the natural balance throughout the area. The road would bring increased traffic, almost certainly resulting in massive loss of life to the herds. But as tragic as this would be, it is not the sole repercussion that would ensue A. overexploitation The exploitation of natural resources started to emerge in the 19th century as natural resource extraction developed. During the 20th century, energy consumption rapidly increased. Today, about 80% of the world’s energy consumption is sustained by the extraction of fossil fuels, which consists of oil, coal and gas.
Another non-renewable resource that is exploited by humans are Subsoil minerals such as precious metals that are mainly used in the production of industrial commodities. Intensive agriculture is an example of a mode of production that hinders many aspects of the natural environment, for example the degradation of forests in a terrestrial ecosystem and water pollution in an aquatic ecosystem. As the world population rises and economic growth occurs, the depletion of natural resources influenced by the unsustainable extraction of raw materials becomes an increasing concern deforestation.
Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. [1] Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use. Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the increasing number of people that live in urban areas. It predominantly results in the physical growth of urban areas, be it horizontal or vertical. The United Nations projected that half of the world’s population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008. [1] By 2050 it is predicted that 64.1% and 85. 9% of the developing and developed world respectively will be urbanized.
Urbanization is closely linked to modernization, industrialization, and the sociological process of rationalization. Urbanization can describe a specific condition at a set time, i. e. the proportion of total population or area in cities or towns, or the term can describe the increase of this proportion over time. So the term urbanization can represent the level of urban development relative to overall population, or it can represent the rate at which the urban proportion is increasing.
MARKET PRESSURES increase in commercialization, intensification and privatization of local economies, growing integration of national and global economies, economic reforms refer to market pressure. The list of such conflicts is extensive. One needs only turn on the news or read a local paper to find stories of such conflicts between man and nature. It is impossible to affect one link in the chain which comprises a given environment without incurring disastrous ramifications. Human beings are the ultimate embodiment of this destructive potential on the planet.
Our encroachment upon…and in far too many instances outright destruction of… various delicate habitats is well documented and comes in a variety of forms. These include: population growth impinging upon an animals natural habitat, destruction of the environment itself through pollution of the air, soil and water, disruption of migratory patterns, over fishing and hunting, deforestation and poaching. Mankind as a whole is the single greatest contributor to ecological imbalance on the planet. Why resources are under pressure? · Increase in the sophistication of technology enabling natural resources to be extracted quickly and efficiently.
E. g. , in the past, it could take long hours just to cut down one tree only using saws. Due to increased technology, rates of deforestation have greatly increased · A rapid increase in population that is now decreasing. The current number of 7. 132 billion humans consume many natural resources. · Cultures of consumerism. Materialistic views lead to the mining of gold and diamonds to produce jewelry, unnecessary commodities for human life or advancement. · Excessive demand often leads to conflicts due to intense competition. Organizations such as Global Witness and the United Nations have documented the connection.
Non-equitable distribution of resources.
CONSEQUENCES
The Holocene extinction, sometimes called the Sixth Extinction, is a name proposed to describe the extinction event of species that has occurred during the present Holocene epoch (since around 10,000 BC). The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large mammals known as megafauna, starting between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago, the end of the last Ice Age. This may have been due to the extinction of the mammoth that had maintained grasslands that became birch forests without the mammoths.
The new forest and the resulting forest fires may have induced climate change. [3] Such disappearances might be the result of the proliferation of modern humans which led to climate change. These extinctions, occurring near the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event. The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century · Erosion is the process by which soil and rock are removed from the Earth’s surface by exogenetic processes such as wind or water flow, and then transported and deposited in other locations.
Industrial agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion.
CONCLUSION
Conversely, to be honest, we are the species that holds the ability to have the greatest positive effect upon this worlds ecosystems. We have it within us to either save or destroy. The ability and the choice is ours. We as a species need to acquire an environmental conscience an awareness before our own shortsightedness and apathy doom us and our fellow denizens of this world to extinction.
