Human Impact

Human Impact on Natural Life Cycles
By: Miaisha Herring
Environmental Science

The Earth is over 500 billion years old and since the beginning of time life as always been present. Small microorganism to gigantic dinosaurs all have roamed the face of earth evolving and growing.
There is also an invisible substances floating around that help to sustain human life as we know it.
It’s the year 2013 and Global warming and pollution is a major factor affecting human.
There are several programs now that teach us how to conserve energy and limiting pollution.

Carbon is the basis of all life on earth as we know it, from humans to plants and animals.
Carbon dioxide from the air with water is absorbed by plants and converted onto carbohydrates in the process of photosynthesis.
Animals eat the carbohydrates (plants) returning the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by the process of respiration, excretion (waste) and decay.
Humans are impacting this cycle because we are burning more fossil fuels that contain carbon; in return this is thinning the ozone layer and is heating the earth causing Global Warming. Phosphorus is another element essential to all life and is found in all DNA and it tells each organism how to act and function.
The phosphorus cycle starts in the earths crust, it’s found inside rocks.
Weathering causes it to break down and wash away into the ground, where it’s mixed with soil.
Plants soak up the phosphorus from the ground and animals eat the plants.
Phosphorus gets into the water supply and is absorbed directly into aquatic plants.
If the plants and producers are not eaten they will die and be absorbed back into the earth.
Humans are affecting this cycle by over using phosphorus.
Phosphorus is used to make fertilizers, animal’s feeds and detergents.
The extensive amount of phosphorus reaching the oceans it’s causing severe water pollution known as eutrophication.
Nitrogen is one earth’s most abundant elements over 78% is made up of the element.
In nitrogen gas form it is unusable to life form it must be converted (fixation).
The process of nitrogen converting to plants and absorbed by animals is the nitrogen cycle.
The way humans impact the nitrogen cycle is the overuse of nitrogen in fertilizers and other products.
This overuse ends up in our water and is also known as eutrophication.

We as human beings need to stop ignoring the threat of pollution on our mother earth.
We have to be conservative with the usage of our natural resources or we will be at a state of no return.
The polar caps our melting and the water is rising and the earth is heating up.
What more of a warning do we need.

References
Wright, R., & Boorse, D. (2014). Environmental science toward a sustainable future, twelfth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

References: Wright, R., & Boorse, D. (2014). Environmental science toward a sustainable future, twelfth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson