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List of environmental issues

 

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List of environmental issues



 
 
This is a list of environmental issues that are due to human activity. These articles relate to the anthropogenic
Anthropogenic

Anthropogenic effects, processes or materials are those that are derived from human activities, as opposed to those occurring in natural environments without human influence....
 effects on the natural environment
Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
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This is a list of environmental issues that are due to human activity. These articles relate to the anthropogenic
Anthropogenic

Anthropogenic effects, processes or materials are those that are derived from human activities, as opposed to those occurring in natural environments without human influence....
 effects on the natural environment
Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
.

  • Climate change
    Climate change

    Climate change is any long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time....
     — Global warming
    Global warming

    Global warming is the increase in the Instrumental temperature record of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation....
     • Fossil fuels • Sea level rise • Greenhouse gas
    Greenhouse gas

    Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that Absorption and Emission radiation within the Infrared#Different regions in the infrared range....


  • Conservation
    Conservation biology

    Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction....
     — Habitat destruction
    Habitat destruction

    Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species originally present. In this process, plants and animals which previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity....
     • Habitat fragmentation
    Habitat fragmentation

    Habitat fragmentation is a process of Natural environmental change important in evolution and conservation biology. As the name implies, it describes the emergence of discontinuities in an organism's preferred environment ....
     • Species extinction • Pollinator decline
    Pollinator decline

    The term Pollinator decline refers to the reduction in abundance of pollinators in many ecosystems worldwide during the end of the twentieth century....
     • Coral bleaching
    Coral bleaching

    Coral bleaching is the loss of color of corals, due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae or due to the loss of pigmentation within the algae....
     • Whaling
    Whaling

    Whaling is the hunting of whales and dates back to at least 4,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity with early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of factory ships along with the concept of whale "har...
     • Holocene extinction event
    Holocene extinction event

    The Holocene extinction event is the widespread, ongoing mass extinction of species during the modern Holocene epoch . The large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods; a sizeable fraction of these extinctions are occurring in the rainforests....
     • Invasive species
    Invasive species

    Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions. The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically....


  • Dams
    DAMS

    Driot-Arnoux Motorsport is a racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsports. DAMS was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver Ren? Arnoux....
     - Environmental impacts of dams
    Environmental impacts of dams

    The environmental impacts of dams have come under renewed examination in recent years.Dam proponents have historically understood that dams largely improve the status of water-related energy and environmental issues by, for example, producing hydroelectric power and increasing the water supply for irrigation....


  • Energy
    Energy

    In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
     - Energy conservation
    Energy conservation

    Energy conservation is the practice of decreasing the quantity of energy used. It may be achieved through efficient energy use, in which case energy use is decreased while achieving a similar outcome, or by reduced consumption of energy services....
     • Renewable energy
    Renewable energy

    Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tidal energy and geothermal energy—which are Renewable resource ....
     • Efficient energy use
    Efficient energy use

    Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is using less energy to provide the same level of energy service. An example would be building insulation to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve the same temperature....
     • Renewable energy commercialization
    Renewable energy commercialization

    Renewable energy commercialization involves the Diffusion of innovations of three generations of technologies dating back more than 100 years....


  • Genetic engineering
    Genetic engineering

    Engineering There are a number of ways through which genetic engineering is accomplished. Essentially, the process has five main steps# Isolation of the genes of interest...
     — Genetic pollution
    Genetic pollution

    Genetic pollution is undesirable gene flow into wild populations. The term is usually associated with the gene flow from a Genetic engineering organism to a non GE organism; however, conservation biology and conservationists are using it to describe gene flow from a Domestication, feral, Introduced species or invasive species to a Wildlife...


  • Intensive farming
    Intensive farming

    Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by the high inputs of Capital , Labour , or heavy usage of technologies such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area....
     — Overgrazing
    Overgrazing

    Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to livestock grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It reduces the usefulness of the land and is one cause of desertification and erosion....
     • Irrigation
    Irrigation

    Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops. In crop production it is mainly used in dry areas and in periods of rainfall shortfalls, but also to protect plants against frost....
     • Monoculture
    Monoculture

    Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. The term is also applied in several fields. It is usually developed by extensive growing farmers....
     • Environmental effects of meat production
    Environmental effects of meat production

    Environmental effects of meat production include pollution and the use of resources such as fossil fuels, water, and land.According to a 2006 report by the Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising anima...


  • Land degradation
    Land degradation

    Land degradation is a concept in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by one or more combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land....
     — Land pollution
    Land pollution

    Land Pollution is the degradation of earth's land surfaces often caused by human activities and their misuse of land resources. Haphazard disposal of urban and industrial wastes, exploitation of minerals, and improper use of soil by inadequate agricultural practices are a few factors....
     • Desertification
    Desertification

    Desertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry Humid subtropical climate areas, resulting primarily from natural activities and influenced by Climate variations....
Soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
 — Soil conservation
Soil conservation

Soil conservation is a set of management strategies for prevention of soil being erosion from the earth?s surface or becoming chemically altered by overuse, salinization, acidification, or other chemical soil contamination....
 • Soil erosion • Soil contamination
Soil contamination

Soil contamination is caused by the presence of man-made chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. This type of contamination typically arises from the rupture of underground storage tanks, application of pesticides, percolation of contaminated surface water to subsurface strata, oil and fuel dumping, leaching of wastes...
 • Soil salination
Soil salination

Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil.Salt affected soils are caused by excess accumulation of salts, typically most pronounced at the soil surface....


  • Nanotechnology
    Nanotechnology

    Nanotechnology, shortened to "Nanotech", is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size....
     — Nanotoxicology
    Nanotoxicology

    Nanotoxicology is the study of the toxicity of nanotechnology. Because of quantum size effects and large surface area, nanomaterials have unique properties compared with their larger counterparts ....
      • Nanopollution
    Implications of nanotechnology

    The implications of nanotechnology run the gamut of human affairs from the Nanomedicine, ethical, mental, legal and environmental, to fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, computing, materials science, military applications, and communications....


  • Nuclear issues
    Nuclear safety

    Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and military uses....
     
    Nuclear fallout
    Nuclear fallout

    Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion, so named because it "falls out" of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion....
     • Nuclear meltdown
    Nuclear meltdown

    A nuclear meltdown is a term for a severe nuclear reactor accident. This can occur when a nuclear power plant system or component failure causes the reactor nuclear reactor core to cease being properly controlled and cooled to the extent that the sealed nuclear fuel assemblies – which contain the uranium or plutonium and highly radio...
     • Nuclear power
    Nuclear power

    Nuclear power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nucleus via controlled nuclear reactions. The only method in use today is through nuclear fission, though other methods might one day include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay ....


  • Overpopulation
    Overpopulation

    Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. In common parlance, the term usually refers to the relationship between the world population and its environment , the Earth....
     — Burial


  • Ozone depletion
    Ozone depletion

    Ozone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth stratosphere since the late 1970s, and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions during the same period....


  • Pollution
    Pollution

    Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms ....
    Air pollution
    Air pollution

    Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment, into the Earth's atmosphere....
     • Light pollution
    Light pollution

    Light pollution, also known as photopollution or luminous pollution, is excessive or obtrusive artificial light. The International Dark-Sky Association , "The Light Pollution Authority," defines light pollution as: It obscures the stars in the night sky for city dwellers, interferes with astronomy observatory, and, like an...
     • Noise pollution
    Noise pollution

    Noise pollution is displeasing human-, animal- or machine-created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life. A common form of noise pollution is from transportation, principally motor vehicles....
     • Thermal pollution
    Thermal pollution

    Thermal pollution is the rise or fall in the temperature of a natural body of water caused by human influence. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers....
Water pollution
Water pollution

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater caused by human activities, which can be harmful to organisms and plants that live in these water bodies....
Acid rain
Acid rain

Acid rain is rain or any other form of Precipitation that is unusually acidic. It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure....
 • Eutrophication
Eutrophication

Eutrophication is an increase in chemical nutrients — compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorus — in an ecosystem, and may occur on land or in water....
 • Marine pollution
Marine pollution

Marine pollution occurs when harmful effects, or potentially harmful effects, can result from the entry into the ocean of chemicals, particle , industrial, agricultural and residential waste, or the spread of invasive organisms....
 • Ocean dumping • Oil spills • Urban runoff
Urban runoff

Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater created by urbanization. This runoff is a major source of water pollution in many parts of the United States and other urban communities worldwide....
 • Water crisis
Water crisis

Water crisis is a term that refers to the status of the world?s water resources relative to human demand. The term has been applied to the worldwide water situation by the United Nations and other world organizations....


  • Resource depletion
    Resource depletion

    Resource depletion is an economics term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Natural resource are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources....
    Exploitation of natural resources
    Exploitation of natural resources

    See also*Sustainability*List of environmental issues*Consumerism*Over-consumption...
Consumerism
Consumerism

Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with Consumption and the purchase of material possessions.The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen....
Consumer capitalism
Consumer capitalism

Consumer capitalism describes a theoretical economic and cultural condition in which demand is manipulated, in a deliberate and coordinated way, on a very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the advantage of sellers....
 • Planned obsolescence
Planned obsolescence

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence is the process of a good becoming obsolete and/or non-functional after a certain period or amount of use in a way that is planned or designed by the manufacturer....
Fishing
Environmental effects of fishing

File:Fishing down the food web.jpgThe environmental effects of fishing can be divided into issues that involve the availability of fish to be caught, such as overfishing, sustainable fisheries, and fisheries management; and issues that involve the impact of fishing on the environment, such as by-catch....
Blast fishing
Blast fishing

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the practice of using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection. This often illegal practice can be extremely destructive to the surrounding ecosystem, as the explosion often destroys the underlying habitat that supports the fish....
 • Bottom trawling
Bottom trawling

Bottom trawling is trawling along the sea floor.The scientific community divides bottom trawling into Benthic zone trawling and Demersal zone trawling....
 • Cyanide fishing
Cyanide fishing

Cyanide fishing is an illegal form of fishing common in South East Asia, which usually uses the chemical compound sodium cyanide. Since 2000, increasing restrictions on illegal dynamite fishing have led to an increasing growth in this indiscriminate method ? particularly as it can be used without generating noise....
 • Ghost net
Ghost net

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been marine debris by fishermen.These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea....
s • Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

Illegal fishing takes place where vessels operate in violation of the laws of a fishery. This can apply to fisheries that are under the jurisdiction of a coastal state or to high seas fisheries regulated by regional organisations....
 • Overfishing
Overfishing

Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
 • Shark finning
Shark finning

Shark finning is the process of removing shark fins to provide the ingredients for the popular Asian dish of shark fin soup....
Logging
Logging

Logging is the process in which certain trees are cut down for forest management and timber....
Clearcutting
Clearcutting

Clearcutting or clearfelling is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all of all trees in a harvest area are cut down. It is a controversial practice....
 • Deforestation
Deforestation

Deforestation is the logging or burning of trees in forested areas. There are several reasons for doing so: trees or derived charcoal can be sold as a commodity and are used by humans while cleared land is used as pasture, plantations of commodities and human settlement....
 • Illegal logging
Illegal logging

Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of country laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agr...
Mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
Acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage

Acid mine drainage , or acid rock drainage , refers to the outflow of acidic water from abandoned metal mining or coal mines. However, other areas where the earth has been disturbed may also contribute acid rock drainage to the environment....
 • Mountaintop removal mining

  • Toxin
    Toxin

    A toxin is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms. For a toxic substance not produced by living organisms, "toxicant" is the more appropriate term, and "toxics" is an acceptable plural....
    s — Chlorofluorocarbons • DDT • Dioxin • Heavy metals
    Heavy metals

    A heavy metal is a member of an ill-defined subset of elements that exhibit metallic properties, which would mainly include the transition metals, some metalloids, lanthanides, and actinides....
     • Herbicides • Pesticides • Toxics use reduction
    Toxics use reduction

    Toxics use reduction is an approach to pollution prevention that targets and measures reductions in the upfront use of toxic materials. Toxics use reduction emphasizes the more preventive aspects of source reduction but, due to its emphasis on toxic chemical inputs, has been opposed more vigorously by chemical manufacturers....
     • Toxic waste
    Toxic waste

    Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use, agriculture, the military, medical facilities, radioactive sources, and light industry, such as dry cleaning establishments....


  • Urban sprawl
    Urban sprawl

    Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work....


  • Waste
    WASTE

    WASTE is a peer-to-peer and friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features instant messaging, chat rooms and file browsing/sharing capabilities....
     — E-waste • Litter
    Litter

    Sorry, no overview for this topic
     • Waste disposal incidents


See also

  • Environmentalism
    Environmentalism

    Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and social movement centered on a concern for the Conservation movement and improvement of the environment ....
  • List of conservation topics
    List of conservation topics

    This is a list of conservation topics. It is a list of articles relating to conservation biology and conservation of the natural environment....
  • List of conservation issues
    List of conservation issues

    This is a list of conservation issues. These articles relate to the anthropogenic effects on species and ecosystems.*Ecosystems ? Biodiversity ? Biosecurity ? Coral bleaching ? Edge effect ? Habitat destruction ? Habitat fragmentation ? Global warming...
  • List of environmental disasters
    List of environmental disasters

    This page is a list of environmental disasters. In this context it is an annotated list of specific events caused by human activity that results in a negative effect on the Environment ....
  • List of environmental organizations
    List of environmental organizations

    This is a list of environmental organizations....
  • Lists of environmental topics
    Lists of environmental topics

    The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is all living and non-living things that occur nature on Earth or some part of it ....
  • List of sustainability topics
    List of sustainability topics

    The following is a list of sustainability topics....

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