Capitalism: The Root Cause to Environmental Degradation

1. This article relates to environmental science because it discusses the humans in the environment and if precautions are not taken the resources will be eventually all used up, leaving no resources for the future overwhelming

The Industrial Revolution was a period that changed the course of human history in many ways. People often think of the positive outcomes rather than the negative consequences, for example, the creation of a more efficient manufacturing process that resulted in more products and profits. However, the industrial revolution also paved ways for humans to increase the amount of pollution being put into the atmosphere immensely. Evidence of this is seen in various graphs of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide. In these graphs, there is a notable spike in these levels starting around the mid 1800s, which is also around the time the Industrial Revolution started to take off and spread around the world. In the data of CO2 emissions, Carbon Dioxide was about 280 ppm (parts per million) in the pre-industrial time period, since then CO2 levels have increased rapidly resulting in around 407 ppm, which is the highest level humans have ever experienced. This being said, the whole human race needs to be self-conscious of what get exposed to Earth’s atmosphere.

Never in the history of the human species have we been in such a rapidly changing environment. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we have been making social, economical, scientific, and environmental changes and advancements at an unprecedented rate. Societal advancements, while much appreciated by the average Joe, have been detrimental to our environment. Every days forests are cut, rivers polluted, and once ecologically important areas are cemented over to compensate for our rapidly growing population. As the status of our natural world becomes more critical by the year it is important that we look at the driving factors and reasons for this destruction of the natural world. While pollutants and globalization are the driving

Neglect to take care of the land after many decades is starting to show significant negative effects on the environment. Many people do not know what all entails land pollution other than the commonly known pollutions such as chemical and waste, the list may surprise you. The list includes sewage treatment, nuclear waste, construction, urbanization, industrialization, landfills, mining, logging, agricultural practices. and deforestation (Rinkesh). As humans, we have continued to develop as a species technologically, communally and agriculturally. The effects we have had on the environment through human development has not been

It's no secret that humans are the number one cause of environmental degradation. At this rate the planet we call home will soon to be nonexistent. The environment is what keeps us alive, as it provides us air, nature, and food. As the industrial revolution became a chapter of American history, where people were making money off of trains and oil rigs, it also became a danger to the environment as deforestation and the extraction of fossil fuels started to diminish the environment. Helen Caldicott, the author of If You Love This Planet: A plane to Save Earth, goes in depth on the cause and effect of human interaction toward the environment.

ou can only have so much good before it is all gone. Resource depletion is the biggest environmental issues known to man. As humans we’re using what we have to live, but we use more than we give out. Through science, we’re finally starting to understand that people are using too much of the resources and altering the face of the earth. If we’re not careful, these problems can’t be fixed.

Magdoff and Foster’s book ‘What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism’ aims to motivate people to start critically thinking of solutions outside of capitalism by means of exploring the role of the capitalist system in causing mass environmental degradation as planetary boundaries are pushed. They seek to explain how another social, economic, and political system is essential for solving the current ecological (and economic crises). The capitalist system is driven by profit and expansion, so no matter how ‘green’ the system can try to become, the environment will not survive its constant exploitation. New technologies and zero-growth economies are not the answer to the environmental destruction, but maybe an

The condition of the environment today is well known to all and sundry. Deforestation, global warming, climate change, toxic pollution, and many more harmful phenomena, have spread all over the world at a pace so fast that the people of the world have had no time to react to it effectively. All over, the loss

50 years of innovation and urbanization, we were blinded by the city lights and smokes that we do not seem to see the importance of taking good care of our environment, especially the nonrenewable sources. The consumers’ needs quickly became wants, and for the producers, wants simply mean profit, and profit is money. Money is everything to people nowadays. We would resort to everything that could provide us even the littlest amount of money, no matter what the repercussions would be, thus, the destroying of the resources. We are slowly killing the planet but we cannot see it because we are too busy trying to get things we believe we need. It is said that the earth’s weight is still the same as it was first created. Come to think of it, we do give and take with the nature, we take its resources, invent something useful that we consume, but we give it back as waste and

This rapid growth of industrial civilization is causing the Earth to die. Moreover the nation has begun to change mindsets on what should come first, they are deciding to put their comfortable lifestyles ahead of the protection of the planet. Stated by Alan Durning, “The tragic irony is that while the consumer society has been stunningly effective in harming the environment, it has failed to provide us with a sense of fulfillment” (Durning 68). Durning gives an undeniable fact; the population has continued to destroy the land so that they may seek entertainment and after they have had their enjoyment, they leave an area to begin the process of destruction. A multitude of the population would argue that the ‘small’ amounts of land that is being used has a microscopic effect on the world, however, when everyone is using ‘small’ amounts of land it adds up. Furthermore, “Barely 7 percent of the areas currently enjoy some form of protection” (Mittermeier). This gives way for a mass eradication of the remaining 93% of the terrain. While people may assume that they are not a threat to the Earth, they have not begun to consider the amount of energy they use or the amount of harmful chemicals that they release

When the air is contaminated by different types of harmful gases & particles ,then it is called air pollution .The addition of harmful chemicals to the atmosphere may be defined as the presence of one or more contaminants such as dust, fumes, gas, mist, odor, smoke or vapor in the atmosphere which may prove to be injurious to plant, animals and human life (Perkins, 1974).. The most serious air pollution results from the burning of fossil fuels, especially in internal-combustion engines(The American Heritage,2002).It means air is a transparent matter consisting of nitrogen & oxygen. may be defined as the presence of one or more contaminants such as dust, fumes, gas, mist, odor, smoke or vapor in the atmosphere which may prove to be injurious to plant, animals and human life (Perkins, 1974). In 2009, Johan Rockström (Stockholm Resilience Center) and a group of researchers from Europe, the U.S. and Australia, tried to identify the Earth-system processes and associated thresholds which, if crossed, could generate unacceptable environmental change . They found nine such processes for which they believe it is necessary to define planetary boundaries. Their analysis suggested that three of the Earth-system processes — rate of biodiversity loss, climate change, interference with the nitrogen cycle have already transgressed their boundaries (Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K, Persson Å, Chapin FS, 2009).So, we have to reduce these kind of pollution at any case . in a

Any type of activities which alters the systems of the environment and he disturbances caused to air,water,soil and the eco systems is known as environmental degradation. Its under the top ten threats in the united nations panel. Because of environmental degradation illness and premature deaths occur in large numbers. A report says that human health is deteriorating in the past decades. If improvements are being made to enhance human health millions of people will dwell a longer and a healthier life. Mountainous farmers produce a reasonable amount of cash crops and food by their old and traditional farming methods. Even though there has

The advancements in various sectors in the life of human beings, which often exploit natural resources without control, directly or indirectly lead to changes in the environment sustained effect unconsciously towards the emergence of a disaster. The other thing is the changes of natural phenomena that occur periodically turned into irregular and even a negative effect on habitat and human life.

Environmental problems are something which belongs to nature or known as “Mother Earth” [13]. Nature was created to help people survive from gathering foods until build a house. This phenomenon happens continuously without thinking how much damage that nature has because human’s fault. Nature gradually becomes worse and animal’s life in danger. People who are aware of the importance of nature react. Those people do several ways to save the environment. Although these efforts can return back the environment, these efforts only can be hold temporarily. This problem happens because those people who are aware of the environment only slightly; for remaining, there are people either do not know or do not care about the nature. People’s efforts

Carbon dioxide is released primarily by burning coal and petroleum products such as gasoline(Lerner). According to the AMS( American Meteorological Society), human activity is affecting the climate of the Earth and the primary cause of air pollution. Even though U.S. has been effectively resolve the problem with air pollution; however, according to the UN( United Nations), the early year of 2007, we produced twenty percent of the world’s total emissions(Bill). In addition, it is predicted that in the next decade, the amount of emission that the U.S. produces will be approximately twenty percent higher than in 2007(Bill) and reach the pollution level that of china and it will be almost impossible to recover from such catastrophe.