How human activities have led to adverse effects on the earth and nature

Student 1 

Hello, human activities have indeed led to adverse effects on the earth and nature. These effects are mostly due to a lack of knowledge on ways of exploiting the surrounding without causing harm. The number of people is continuously increasing, causing pressure to the existing resources. I believe that people can be taught ways of controlling the population around the world. In places like China, a policy has been implemented where a couple can have only one child (Alpermann & Zhan, 2019). The government should also invest in family planning programs, where people will be taught different ways; they can manage the number of children they have. Reducing the world population will reduce other effects on the environment, such as deforestation, since the land for settlement will no longer be needed (Crandal et al., 2018). People should be educated about the different ways they can protect the environment since the destruction would affect humanity in the long-run.   

References 

Alpermann, B., & Zhan, S. (2019). Population planning after the one-child policy: Shifting modes of political steering in China.  Journal of Contemporary China ,  28 (117), 348-366. 

Crandall, S. G., Ohayon, J. L., de Wit, L. A., Hammond, J. E., Melanson, K. L., Moritsch, M. M., ... & Packard, H. G. (2018). Best practices: social research methods to inform biological conservation.  Australasian Journal of environmental management ,  25 (1), 6-23. 

Student 2 

Hello, I agree with you that despite the increase in the environment, there are environmentally-friendly lifestyles that can be introduced to protect the surrounding. Global warming is a menace resulting from human activities aimed at improving the type of lives people lead. Technology has advanced, and industrial and agricultural activities can now be carried out in safer methods (Binder & Blankenberg, 2017). Such practices will increase productivity and ensure the sustainability of the environment for a longer production period. Most people are not aware of personal activities that destroy the environment. I feel that people should be educated about the carbon footprint to help reduce the amount of carbon released in the air. If we destroy the environment, we will suffer due to the increased temperature rise and other effects such as high sea levels (Liu et al., 2019). Lack of knowledge can, at times, contribute to harm, thus the need for creating environmental awareness and lifestyles that ensure the safety of the surrounding.   

References 

Binder, M., & Blankenberg, A. K. (2017). Green lifestyles and subjective well-being: More about self-image than actual behavior?  Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization ,  137 , 304-323. 

Liu, Y., Xue, Y., MacDonald, G., Cox, P., & Zhang, Z. (2019). Global vegetation variability and its response to elevated CO2, global warming, and climate variability–a study using the offline SSiB4/TRIFFID model and satellite data.