Category: Environmental Issues

In this essay I will start by outlining the social, cultural, and philosophical context of the urban park, how these resulted in the emergence of public parks, and additionally how the evolution of the designer’s and user’s attitudes to the public realm in these places shaped their development throughout. I will investigate the theory behind the form of the nineteenth-century urban park, looking specifically at Olmsted’s Central Park and its relationship to the city. Understanding how the philosophical context of the time, Transcendentalism and Romanticism, affected the approach towards public parks. Additionally, I will be inspecting Olmsted’s and Vaux’s subsequent work on Prospect Park, how the relationship between the park and the city developed along with studying the evolution of both the designer’s and user’s attitudes towards these parks, comparing both projects. I will then briefly outline the social and cultural context for Amsterdamse Bos, a European park of the 20th century. Comparing and contrasting any parallel developments. Finishing by concluding these themes which demonstrate why Olmsted and Vaux are considered to be the fathers of landscape architecture.

The social, cultural, and philosophical context of the development of the urban park is crucial to comprehend the relationship between the urban park and the city, additionally how the evolution of the designer’s and user’s attitude to the public realm in these places shaped their development. The social context of 19th-century cities revolves around the unprecedented problems caused by the birth of mass society. ‘Cholera, caused by contaminated drinking water, and other illnesses were associated with overcrowding’. These problems lead to the use of industrial technology to build important elements of new urban infrastructure, for example, aqueducts and sewers. These new developments were imperative for populations to be able to survive in cities grown to a metropolitan scale. Furthermore, parks and transportation lines, which were now possible, connecting the outlying residential suburbs to the commercial center were needed to maintain contact with nature otherwise lost to large-scale urban growth. These new posed problems in terms of education, housing, and medical problems illuminated religion’s role in an ethical system as industrial capitalism and humane practicality went hand in hand. The doctrine of utilitarianism was enunciated by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill and was ‘the ethical theory that sees utility as a measure of economic and social value, directing all action toward the goal of achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people’.

Colonialism, which peaked in the 19th century was generally callous in its disregard of native cultural values. It attempted to push Western mores as universal while relegating non-European races to an inferior social and cultural status. The United States, even after becoming a sovereign nation, achieved the settlement of its continental territory under similar cultural imperatives. Nevertheless, this period in Western history demonstrated the improvement of living conditions, superior public sanitation, and the foundations of modern medicine as a result of science. With the help of faster means of transportation and communication, this scientific technology fostered a plethora of new inventions which improved the processes of industrial production in terms of quality and speed. This resulted in goods being cheap and readily available. ‘The creation of public parks and rural cemeteries were linked 19th-century phenomena’. What this means is the that the rise in the number of dead in growing municipalities meant faster disinterment was needed to make room for new burials. Non-denominational public cemeteries were advocated by sectarian minorities who didn’t have burial grounds. Sanitary reformers joined these same efforts as they recognized that urban churchyards were a source of groundwater contamination, allowing the spread of Cholera and other infectious diseases as previously mentioned.

The Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, established in 1804, became an international model for municipal cemeteries. The first American public cemeteries, Brooklyn’s Green Wood and Boston’s Mount Auburn served the function of public pleasure grounds quite successfully and prior to the establishment of public parks. This promoted the municipal parks movement, which was growing fast in popularity. Nineteenth-century designers began to incorporate newly discovered plants, resultant of expeditions of botanical discovery and the establishment of commercial nurseries, into the existing repertoire of design idioms which included Picturesque, geometric and gridiron layouts. Horticulture became within reach for other social strata due to commercial nurseries catering to the head gardeners of large estates. As living standards rose so did the growth in home ownership. The ornamental garden assumed a fresh importance, as an aesthetic object rather than just a utilitarian one. This is significant to the movement of public park development as a whole as it was the beginning of a revelation that sought the value of incorporating existing vernacular architecture into design. Cottages and sometimes whole villages, which previously were thought to blight the view of naturalistic arranged scenery were now appreciated for their comfort and warmth for those who dwelt within and scenic charm for those without. At the same time, industrial production in large factories saw the separation of living space from the workplace. These new means of public transportation, mainly due to the invention of the railroad steam engine and macadam paving, made the creation of residential suburbs possible. Landscape planners quickly exploited this opportunity with ample ingenuity.

Frederick Law Olmsted in partnership with Calvert Vaux, created the picturesque idiom towards democratic ends by creating America’s first public parks. These parks that Olmsted and Vaux designed, the first of which is in New York starting with Central Park, were ‘mostly naturalistic essays in which they replicated rural and wilderness scenery in order to create a poetic mood that would lift the spirits of careworn city dwellers’. Olmsted and Vaux were the country’s very first urban planners on a metropolitan scale. They had envisioned clearly a citywide system by linking parks with parkways and providing carriage drives to America’s first suburbs. The curvilinear plan form of these suburbs offered a Picturesque alternative to the existing grid layout.

Calvert Vaux, born 1824, finally got to put his talents to the test, while in collaboration with Frederick Law Olmsted, born 1822, to create America’s first large-scale public park. Central Park was the real beginning of the parks movement as well as the profession of landscape architecture in America. New York’s campaign for a public park coincided favorably with the Vaux’ plans and he moved to the city in 1856. At this time New York was spawning a lively artistic culture, with the likes of theatres, musical halls, and department stores opening up on Broadway. Both these social and commercial aspects were becoming accustomed to many New Yorkers all whilst the city’s thriving port and commercial enterprises drew in quite a volume of immigrants, especially after the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s and the resulting political turbulence after several failed revolutionary movements throughout Europe in 1848. While public health had greatly improved in New York since the addition, in 1842, of the Croton Aqueduct which supplied pure drinking water to the city, this mass immigration caused a lot of crowding and threatened the city with an increase of disease and crime. In the current state, New York had little to offer in terms of publicly accessed spaces of greenery. Apart from the Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, which had become and continued to be increasingly popular, residential squares and spaces were fenced off with restricted access. It seemed apparent to Olmsted and Vaux it was necessary to build a great public park to satisfy the city’s recreational needs as well as to ‘establish their city competitively as a pleasant and civilized urban center of international importance’. So after contentious debate, a bill was passed in 1853 which authorized the acquisition of land below the Croton Reservoir in the center of the island. The democratic mayor at the time saw potential in a large public works project to assist immigrant laborers as well as be profitable for himself as he was heavily invested in park-side real estate, and so the construction of Central Park between 5th & 8th avenues and 59th &106th streets proceeded.

The legislature in Albany, which was dominated by the newly formed Republican Party, was apparently eager to wrest power from Mayor Wood and removed authority over Central Park from the city, and placed it under a state-appointed commission. The engineer Egbert Viele was re-appointed by the commission but after Vaux saw the plan Viele proposed, which Wood had approved, he considered it inferior to the potential that was at hand. Vaux successfully lobbied for a design competition to find a plan that, according to him, wouldn’t disgrace the city. The terms of the competition were announced on October 13th, 1857. After previously meeting once before, Vaux made

Olmsted superintendent of clearing operations of Central Park. Vaux recognized that Olmsted’s daily familiarity with the park landscape and his stature as a person of moral influence would make him a great partner in the design competition. They labeled their competition entry the Greensward Plan (image.1) which embodied the vision of gently rolling contours created by judiciously removing or adding to the land. Using drains to convert swamps into ponds, they would release a landscape that was pastoral yet Picturesque. For however much design ability and intelligence Vaux added to the professional duo it was undoubtedly Olmsted’s brand of nineteenth-century spirituality and democratic humanitarianism that added a philosophical purpose to their shared vision. Olmsted found that the Gardenesque style would only be a distraction for the park’s real purpose. A purpose to create rural scenery that ‘evoked a poetic mood lifting one out of everyday care and ennobling the spirit with intimations of the divine’. Olmsted never presented himself as having botanical expertise, he preferred plants arranged for their overall artistic expression rather than those presented as individual scientific specimens. Olmsted shared the same view of the landscape as eighteenth-century writers, seeing landscape not as a collection of features artistically arranged for display but as a shifting panorama, an array of views and vistas that revealed themselves harmoniously as one moved throughout.

Olmsted’s outlooks on the landscape were heavily influenced by his religious experiences growing up, like his father, he responded to transcendentalism and also had a keen emotional response to romanticism being fascinated by the beautiful and sublime in nature. He’d also been influenced by his immersion, as a young man, in the beautifully green rural landscape of England. His mind was imprinted with imagery of pastoral beauty, it served as lasting inspiration for him. The sight that most impressed him from his time in England as he describes it, from a democratic standpoint, was Paxton’s Birkenhead Park, which was the first publicly funded park. ‘’Five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent in studying the manner in which art had to be employed to obtain from nature so much beauty’’. He also admits that in democratic America, there was nothing he thought of as comparable with this ‘People’s Garden’. Thanks to Vaux, he now had the chance to create a ‘People’s Garden’ in New York and in a far grander scale.

As Olmsted’s daytime duties as superintendent continued the pair did most of the collaborations on moonlit as they paced the grounds recognizing the scenic potential of its Manhattan context. They studied extensively the minutiae of the park, deciding the placement of drainage lines, the configuration of carriage lines, and the superior vantage points for vistas. Olmsted and Vaux submitted their Greensward Plan on March 31st, 1858. They were awarded first prize on April 28th. A central element of the Olmsted-Vaux landscape was to use scattered clumps of trees arranged peripherally to lead the eye beyond the indeterminate boundaries and create the illusion of seemingly unending rural scenery. This was a challenge for Central Park because of its narrow rectangular shape and broken topography. One of the most aptly intelligent aspects of the Greensward Plan was the four engineered crossings from east to west. They carried workaday traffic of the city through the park. Olmsted and Vaux implemented the principle of grade separation of traffic a step further by segregating pedestrians from carriage traffic and riders on horseback. This allowed Vaux to design a number of stone arches for paths to accommodate separate carriages and pedestrians.

Olmsted and Vaux are sometimes criticized for being carriers of patrician values or for being agents of elitist objectives because they created a park centralized around scenic viewing. Scenic viewing by carriage, horseback, and on foot yet didn’t cater to the same degree as more populist pastimes, such as games and sports. This outlook imposes a later value system on their objectives and ignores the fact that at the time, which was prior to the physical recreational movement, scenic strolling was a healthy pastime widely enjoyed by all classes. It is difficult to argue they weren’t completely sincere in their aims to provide pleasure and education or enlightenment to the romantically inclined generation at the time or to soften the lives of the less fortunate members of society. Olmsted and Vaux were convinced that the park’s Picturesque and pastoral scenery would serve as an informal public school, teaching immigrants through the unconscious process of scenic indulgence in common values. It is indisputable that there were certain users who felt little transcendental effects in the presence of scenery, to some the park was merely a social arena, a place to parade their wealth. This of course is not to say that the idealism expressed by Olmsted and Vaux wasn’t genuine.

Contrary to many of the landscapes presented to the public by the twentieth-century park builder Robert Moses, which often held single-purpose recreation facilities, the spaces Olmsted and Vaux created were designed to accommodate a variety of purposes. In his writings, Olmsted separates the park into two types of space, ‘’neighborly’’ and ‘’gregarious’’ the former being for small groups of family and friends who came to the park to picnic and enjoy the scenery. The latter serves the congregating strangers who simply enjoy the spectacle of each other. ‘Throughout the park, the rural motif ruled in the predominant interest of ‘’neighborly’’ recreation’. However, an important area was reserved for the ‘’gregarious’’ function. This was the elm-arcaded Mall, a linear concourse from the 65th to the 72nd street which was on the diagonal axis. This was intended to distract from the park’s rectangular perimeter. In the south end of the park, the designer’s consideration of women and children is evident.

Introduction

In the past few decades, tourism has grown rapidly, as can be seen, in its contribution to employment and economic growth to become a distinguished industry (WTTC, 2017). The travel industry develop into the fastest, enormous, and most sustainable growing economic district in the world (Butler, 1999; Weaver, 2006; UNWTO, 2018). Currently, it has 292 million employed people worldwide, accounting for one out of ten global jobs (WTTC, 2017). The industry come out with 10.2 percent of the world GDP in 2016, and it is forecast to increase steadily by 3.9 percent annually in the next decade (WTTC, 2017). In this context of growth, when developing tourism in a stable manner, continuous improvement is a very important factor for competitive destinations. Nevertheless, we must mind that tourism has an incredible unique power to create wealth, thus in the medium and long term we must care about the environment’s loading competence and the life of quality for the local residents, otherwise, we will face the problem of refusing passengers due to the saturation of the local population. Moreover, in order to improve competitiveness and tourist productivity, it is very important to formulate relevant policies. It is necessary to focus on the preservation of the environment and local values (Exceltur, 2017).

Tourism is considered to be a means of promoting the development of a country’s economy, but tourism is also one of the participants in environmental consumption due to the construction of buildings and tourism activities (2016 F. Kurniawan). Recently several studies have confirmed tourism has generated increasing direct and indirect effects (positive and negative) at the economic, social, and environmental levels of continental and island destinations (Sun et al., 2013, Sánchez et al., 2014). Furthermore, the consequences of tourism activities not only on the environment may lead to important ecosystem degradation, pollution, and erosion, but also to the socio-cultural aspects of the resort, which may lead to irreversible changes in traditional lifestyles (Mathieson and Wall, 1982). Therefore, the tourism industry comforts the same threat as other societies, which is the equilibrium of the demands of economic development and recognizing the impact of the activity on the environment and social culture (Mathieson and Wall, 2007).

The UNWTO (2016) (United Nations World Tourism Organization) organized the First Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in 2003, it was show that global phenomena of climate change have been connected to the tourism industry, since then, the role of tourism in the net contribution of global greenhouse gas emissions have been discussed. In order to help preserve the natural environment, the UNWTO Davos Declaration encourages tourists to think about the impact of their behavior on the economic, social, and environment and reduce carbon footprint and carbon emissions (Scott, Amelung, Becken, Ceron, Dubois, Gössling, Peeters, Simpson 2008). In addition, scientific evidence indicates that changes in the Earth’s climate are directly related to human behavior, so further thinking about the importance of human behavior to environmental impacts (IPCC, 2007).

These situations have created a series of knowledge whose main purpose is to solve the problem of environmental degradation from the perspective of human behavior. As long as the sustainable environment protects society and the natural environment, the behavior of environmental protection becomes crucial (Gifford, 2014). Consequently, this is why most environmental policies require sustainable behavior (Dobson, 2007; Oskamp, 2000), which means that human behavior is a cornerstone in solving environmental problems. what’s more, the term sustainable tourism appears in a real situation, because too many tourist destinations can no longer continue to develop without considering the aftermath, so sustainable tourism is another way to do, not just follow the original travel principles (Shaw＆Williams，2002).

It has previously been observed that many islands in the world are more dependent on tourism than mainland islands (Briguglio and Briguglio,2005). The small island destinations offer beautiful, vibrant, aesthetically pleasing views, as well as a variety of natural habitats, including attractive, warm, clear, and clean water. So it is one of the most popular tourist activities (2016 F. Kurniawan). However, compared to other types of tourist destinations, islands have limited resources and a fragile natural environment, so tourism on the island must pay more attention to the management of the environment and the environmental problems caused by the behavior of tourists. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to review recent research into sustainable behavior and island destinations.

Island destination

-definition

There are many of definitions an ‘island’, so it is difficult to define. Authors from different fields continue to doubt the true meaning of the structure of the island (Olwig, 2007). Although each island has something in common in fact it is different. Not all islands can be tourist destinations (Wilkinson, 2012; Liang, 2017). Some islands merge with the peninsula, and some will disappear due to the tide. At the same time, the island could be far from the mainland but also could be very close to it, moreover, if the island is close to another island, it could be formed an archipelago. In addition, the differences between the islands in particular the climate, flora, fauna, economy, social culture and development… etc. That indicates the diversity of islands, the previous literature mentions that it needs to be interpreted and presented according to the difference of islands.(Baldacchino, 2008; Corral and Cànoves, 2013).

For Baldacchino (2012), the island is generally defined as the land surrounded by freshwater and saltwater, this definition is close to Packham (2012) who defines an island as a piece of land covered by water. However, accorded to another definition provided by Stratford (2003), Kopaka (2009), and Baldacchino (2013) that an island is a dynamic entity with eco-biological, sociocultural, experiential, mystical, representative, mythological, or metaphorical nature. While a variety of definitions of the term island destination have been suggested, this paper will use the definition suggested by Rachel Dodds (2012) and Sonya Graci (2012).

-why island destination, not mainland

On many different islands in the world, tourism is seen as the way for a country to develop its economy (Croes, 2006). The factor that attracts visitors to the island related to their beauty, exoticism, artistic, and natural habitat diversity such as coral reefs, beaches or sand dunes, and the warm, seductive water of the island (Daby, 2003). Due to the natural attraction of the island destination is usually related to the tourism industry, so the most direct threat to the natural environment of the island is the possibility of over-exploitation (Butler, 1993 and 1998; Murphy, 1994). Furthermore, construction and tourism activities are one of the main factors causing environmental damage, as can be seen, tourism is one of the major contributors (Pickering and Hill, 2007; Fabinyi, 2008; Hannak et al., 2011). Many studies have pointed out that there are four human activities that cause a quality and quantity impact on the natural environment, the first is fishing, the second is hotels and resorts, as well as the use of ports and boats, the third is walking on the coral reef, snorkeling, and shallow water, the last one is island’s land pollution (Barkes and Roberts, 2004; Hutabarat et al., 2009; Parolo et al., 2009; Hannak et al., 2011).

Since most of the island’s GDP is attributed to tourism, the island’s tourism has grown rapidly over the past decade. The rapid increase in many buildings or facilities has resulted in a lack of adequate infrastructure to handle large amounts of waste and sewage, causing water and soil pollution. In turn, affects the economy, society, and ecology of the entire island. For instance, habitat, ocean, and geology; isolation or deterioration of local culture; damage to traditional livelihoods, therefore, compared with the mainland, after the small islands were developed, in general, the small islands are more susceptible to negative effects. Furthermore, the natural and social resources of the island are limited, which also shows that the sustainable development of the island is very important (Rachel Dodds,2012; Sonya Graci, 2012)

At present, a series of studies have confirmed that tourism will have negative and positive impacts on islands. (Hall, 2010; Silva et al., 2010, Corral and Ca`noves, 2013, Wortman et al., 2016). The evidence of negative influence on the island environment is due to the tourist’s behavior which can be seen clearly in these three cases. The first one is Boracay, Philippines. Because of the great deal of tourists, causing damage to the island environment, the island was closed in February 2018 for cleaning. Boracay government has three purposes, the first is to clean up the environment, the second is to improve the hotel’s sewage treatment system and the last one is to develop a tourism strategy to ensure the island’s sustainable development (EHL).

The second island is Jeju Island in South Korea. Recently relevant research indicates that Jeju Island is also dependent on the natural environment to attract tourists, but due to excessive use of the island and rapid expansion, it has a major impact on the environment. By way of illustration, Min-Seong Kim (2018), Jinwon Kim (2018), and Brijesh Thapa (2018) show that apart from sustainable development, the sustainable behavior of tourists is one of the important factors to concern.

The third island is Taiwan’s island it is called Liuqiu Island, this is an island that is attracted tourists by maritime activities. However, the destructive behavior of tourists has caused the degradation of intertidal biodiversity, which has a huge impact on the environment (Lo, 2013). That case study confirms the importance of tourist sustainable behavior, it shows tourists can directly affect the environment. In this review, the next part will discuss how tourist behavior is sustainable.

Sustainable behavior

-definition

Basic on previous research, several definitions of sustainable behavior have been proposed. According to Bonnes and Bonaiuto (2002), Sustainable behavior is defined as ‘A series of thoughtful and fruitful actions to protect the social physical environment in contemporary and future generations’. Another researcher more recently defined sustainable behavior is defined as a series of actions aimed at the complete protection of current and future social and physical resources. Here physical and social resources refer to natural resources or an environment that supplies human needs. For example food, water, place of residence, quality of life, social justice, safety and education…etc. Moreover, sustainable development can meet human needs and protect human resources (society, culture, people’s survival, and welfare) while protecting material resources because these two are as important as protecting ecosystems (basic substances that life and organisms depend on) (Tapia-Fonllem et al., 2013).

-sustainable behavior of tourist definition

In accordance with several studies, sustainable behavior of tourist is a word that began to appear twenty years ago (Emil Juvan,2016, Sara Dolnicar 2016), Obviously, this term has not appeared twenty years ago, but it has begun to have narrative related to the tourist sustainable behavior. According to the first literature, Krippendorf (1987) used the term “the emancipated tourist”, which defines experienced tourists, as starting to awareness of health and the environment that were not important to them. And a decade later, Dinan (2000) and Sergeant (2000) used the term “ sustainable tourist” which is defined as someone who appreciates themselves as a visitor in another culture, economy, society, and environment and respects the uniqueness of travel. In 2010, sustainable behavior is defined by Mehmetoglu (2010), ‘‘Someone who was concerned about sustainability issues (i.e. of economic benefit to local people”. From time to time, various theories of sustainable behavior of tourism have been explained, this paper will use the term “Environmentally responsible tourist” which is a definition by Emil Juvan (2016) and Sara Dolnicar (2016) who saw the tourists’ behavior that would not cause negative impacts on the natural environment, and even more they could profit the environment to destinations around the world.

Niagara Falls is a famous tourist sight located on the border of Canada and the United States.

The absolute location of Niagara Falls is 43.0896° N, 79.0849° W. Part of Niagara Falls belongs to Canada, and the other belongs to the United States. Due to the nature of the city, the population is divided into two parts. The Ontario part of Niagara Falls has a population of around 88 thousand, and the New York part of Niagara Falls has a population of 48 thousand. Throughout history, the climate of Niagara Falls has barely changed. Low temperature all year long. The highest temperature reached in the summer is only around 25 degrees Celsius and falls to as low as -8 degrees in the winter (NiagaraFallsInfo.com, 2019). Niagara Falls rest right next to the Niagara River and the waterfall of Niagara Falls is connected by Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

In the summer, a ferry service can take people to the middle of Niagara Falls and experience the waterfall closely. Tourists often travel by bus or shuttle services provided by companies such as Grey Hound Bus. Local residents of Niagara Falls usually travel on foot, by bicycle, motor vehicle, and public transport such as buses. It is a small town, only 209 kilometers squared. The main source of its economic income is tourism. Religions of Niagara Fall residents vary from Christianity, Jewish, Muslim, and so on. The most significant is Christianity. The largest ethnic group in Niagara Falls is Whites, according to the research done by Statistical Atlas (2018), the city of Niagara Falls is made up of a 68.2% white population. Niagara Falls has become an industrialized region due to its modernization and urbanized city center. On the side of human-environmental actions, Niagara Falls are heavily polluted. The amount of chemical waste dumped into Niagara River, according to Canadian officials, was close to 9000 pounds. Most of the toxic pollution comes from the shutdown of industrial factories.

After independence, India launched a series of economic plans for rapid expansion in agriculture, industry, transport, and other infrastructure with a view to increasing production and employment, reducing poverty and inequality of incomes, and establishing a socialist society based on equality and justice. But because of poor planning and in many cases mindless and ruthless exploitation of natural resources, we have degraded our physical environment. Environmental problems have become serious in many parts of the country and can no longer be neglected. Environmental problems in a country are affected by the level of economic development, the availability of natural resources, and the lifestyle of the population. The central question of this paper is what are the key causes of land degradation across typical agroecological regions of India? This present study attempts to understand environmental degradation in India with a special focus on land degradation: its types, causes, and remedies. Then the paper concludes with the whole argument.

What Is Environmental Degradation?

This is a term used to describe a situation in which a part of the natural environment is damaged. It can be used to refer to damage to the land, water, or air. Environmental degradation can also mean a loss of biodiversity and a loss of natural resources in an area. Environmental degradation is not a new thing, it has been happening all over the world for centuries. The problem is that it is now occurring at a much faster rate, therefore not leaving enough time for the environment to recover and regenerate. The greater demands placed on the environment by an ever-increasing human population are putting a great strain and drain on the earth’s limited natural resources. Environmental degradation is a serious threat to the lives of people, animals, and plants, making it imperative that we stop further degradation from occurring.

What Is Land Degradation?

Land is an important natural resource, which provides food, fuel, fodder, and timber to us. Unfortunately, the land has been exploited and abused mercilessly for centuries, resulting in an enhanced rate of land degradation. Land degradation means a loss in the capacity of a given land to support the growth of useful plants on a sustained basis. Land degradation is a big loss to the economy as the land loses its production potential and gets converted into wastelands. Hence shrinking the land resource base is a big problem for developing countries like India. The per capita man land ratio in India is hardly about 0.48 hectares, which is the lowest in the world.

Land degradation poses a considerable challenge to agricultural growth and poverty reduction in India. It is officially estimated that about 44 % of India’s land area is degraded. The causes of land degradation are numerous and complex. Proximate factors include the extension of crop cultivation to marginal and low-potential lands or land vulnerable to natural hazards, improper crop rotations, overuse of agrochemicals, and mismanagement of the irrigation system. Moreover, ‘shifting cultivation’ practiced in many parts of the country is responsible for deforestation and the expansion of agriculture to less productive lands. However, the underlying causes are believed to be poverty among agricultural households, land fragmentation, insecure land tenure, the open access nature of some resources, and policy and institutional failures.

To illustrate one of these drivers in more detail, India supports 18 % of the world’s human population and 15 % of the global livestock population but is endowed with only 2.4 % of the world’s land area. Moreover, the average size of land holdings in agriculture declined from 2.30 to 1.16 ha during 1970–2010 due to increasing population pressure. About 60 % of the land is rainfed and low in productivity, leading to high inter-annual fluctuations in agricultural output. About 200 million rural poor depend on these rain-fed areas for their livelihoods.

Types of Land Degradation

Land degradation is categorized into three types: physical degradation, biological degradation, and chemical degradation. Physical degradation refers to deterioration in the physical properties of soil, whereas biological degradation refers to reduction in soil organic matter, decline in biomass carbon, and decrease in activity and diversity of soil fauna. Chemical degradation is basically due to nutrient depletion.

Extent of Land Degradation

Degraded land includes eroded lands, saline/alkaline lands, water-logged lands, and mined lands. The total land area of India is 329 million hectares, of which about 178 million hectares (54%) are converted into wastelands for one or other reasons. This also includes about 40 million hectares of degraded forest. The total cultivable land of the country is about 144 million hectares, of which 56% (80.6 million hectares) is degraded due to faulty agricultural practices, and dense forest cover has been reduced to 11% (36.2 million hectares) of the total geographical area. Watershed areas, river corridors, and rangelands have been extensively disturbed. The situation is frequently so bad that even cessation of abuse may no longer lead to self-restoration of biological diversity, stability, and productivity of the ecosystems.

In India, about 25% of the land area is suffering from the problem of water erosion. Soil erosion by water in the form of rill and sheet erosion is a serious problem in the red and lateritic soils of South and Eastern India where about 40 tonnes per hectare of topsoil is lost annually. Out of 70 million hectares of the black soils of Central India, about 6.7 million hectares are already unproductive due to the development of gullies. Over 4.4 million hectares of land are degraded due to shifting cultivation, practiced largely by tribals in northeastern India.

Ravines are a system of gullies or gorges worn out by torrents of water running more or less parallel to each other and draining into a major river or its tributaries after a short distance with development or deep and wide gorges. In fact, ravine lands are manifestations of extreme forms of water erosion occupying approximately 3.67 million hectares of land, chiefly distributed in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. It has been estimated that the production potential of ravine areas in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan alone would amount to 3 million tonnes of food grains annually, besides fruit, fodder, and wood. On a conservative estimate, the country is losing a total output worth about Rs.157 crores a year by failure to reclaim and develop the ravine lands. Furthermore, these ravine lands have been creating problems of law and order maintenance in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as the notorious dacoits take refuge in these eroded lands and conduct their unlawful activities.

Wind erosion is chiefly the problem of arid and semi-arid regions of the country where the soil is sandy with scanty vegetation or even without vegetative cover. In India, about 50 million hectares of land area is affected by wind erosion, most of which belongs to Rajasthan and Gujarat. The over-grazing is the main cause of soil erosion in these areas. It is estimated that a program for the control of wind erosion covering 50 million hectares would cost about 3,000 crores of rupees.

Approximately 140 million hectares of land area of the country is affected by water and soil erosion as a result of which the top fertile layer of the soil is lost annually at the rate of 6,000 million tonnes per year, containing more than Rs.1,000 crores worth of nutrients. The number of macronutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N, P & K) lost during this process is about 5.53 million tonnes.

Causes of Land Degradation in India

There are seven main causes of land degradation in India:

1. Excessive population pressure on land. India supports approximately 16% of the world’s human population and 20% of the world’s livestock population on merely 2.5% of the world’s geographical area. The steady growth of the human as well as livestock population, the widespread incidence of poverty, and the current phase of economic and trade liberalization is exerting heavy pressures on India’s limited land resources for competing uses in forestry, agriculture, pastures, human settlements, and industries. This has led to very significant land degradation.
2. Deforestation. India loses 1.3 million hectares of forests per year. One of the major causes of desertification is the cutting down of trees. According to the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), India had less than 11.4% of the area under forest as per the 1992 observation. But the more recent satellite pictures show that the forest cover is now less than 10%.
3. Erosion. Loss of vegetative cover has made land more susceptible to erosion. Agents of erosion like wind and water have left vast tracts of land barren. Water erodes topsoil to an extent of around 12,000 million tonnes (mt) per annum. The loss of topsoil represents a permanent depletion of the resource base. The annual loss caused by the erosion of topsoil through water comes to Rs.12,000 crores.
4. Over-irrigation. Big irrigation projects no doubt have brought prosperity to millions of farmers. But due to over-enthusiasm, many farmers have resorted to successive cropping and over-irrigation, thereby leading to water-logging and consequent salinization and alkalinization. This situation mainly arises due to poor drainage.
5. Floods and droughts. It is ironic that in India both floods and droughts occur regularly and alternately. According to the National Commission on Agriculture (1976), there are three types of drought: meteorological drought caused by a marked decrease in rainfall, hydrological drought caused by prolonged meteorological drought and its consequent effects on water sources, and agricultural drought caused by insufficient rainfall to support crops. 35% of the land is drought-prone and receives rainfall of less than 750 mm. Another 18.5% of the land receiving 750-1000 mm falls in the transitional zone. The remaining 46.5% receiving rainfall of over 1000 mm falls under the humid zone. The impact of drought leads to a shortage of fodder, a shortage of drinking water, a loss in agricultural production, and a general decline in living standards. Drought is both man-made and environment-induced. Man has played a key role in the creation of drought-prone areas due to his over-exploitation of natural resources like forests, degradation of grazing lands, excessive withdrawal of groundwater, silting of tanks, rivers, etc. Floods, on the other hand, are caused by heavy rains in a very short period. Each situation could have been altered had there been good vegetal cover. Vegetation helps in reducing run-off, increasing infiltration, and reducing soil erosion. The land area prone to floods has doubled from 20 million hectares to above 40 million hectares in the last ten years.
6. Grazing. India possesses an area which is just a fortieth of the total land area of the world supporting 197 million cattle and ranking first in the world for cattle population. To support such an immense cattle population we have only 13 Mha as pasture land. This has led to serious problems as animals have encroached into forest lands and even agricultural lands. Due to a lack of green fodder, animals are pushed to the fringes of reserve forests and are thus destabilizing the forest vegetation. Land degradation due to overgrazing leads to desert-like conditions, which in turn reduce animal productivity and increase the economic pressure on human beings who depend on animals for their livelihood. Grazing would not be a problem if the dung of the animals is left as fertilizer. Unfortunately, it is removed to be used as fuel, to be sold to intensively farmed areas, etc.
7. Pollution. Pollution of land is caused by the disposal of solid waste and refuse from domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Industrial wastes are chemical residues, fly ash from thermal power stations, plastics, rubber, glass, and discarded metal. Agricultural residues are pesticides and fertilizers. Another major source of pollution not known to the general public is the creation of derelict land due to mining. Roughly 0.8 Mha of land in India is despoiled due to open or surface and underground mining activities. Though this problem is highly location-specific and restricted to remote areas, it necessarily warrants attention in terms of wise remedies of land. Somewhere someone is affected due to mining and reclamation of such derelict land.

Remedies of Land Degradation

1. Wastelands should be afforested on a massive scale involving local people. People themselves should select trees that will meet their requirements.
2. The demand for timber should be drastically reduced. Substitutes for furniture material and packing cases should be used. This would ease pressure on standing forests.
3. Catchment areas or water sheds must be thickly vegetated. This would hold rainwater and recharge springs, rivers, etc.
4. Cultivation on hilly slopes should require terracing and bundling along contour lines.
5. Tanks should be desilted, check dams constructed, and small ponds created to hold run-off water.
6. Shifting agriculture should be replaced by settled agriculture.
7. Fertilisers and micronutrients should be applied correctly and only if required. Periodic sampling of soils should be done.
8. More use of organic manure. Too much stress has been given to inorganic fertilizers. But we have to realize that excessive application of inorganic fertilizers is not a healthy way of practicing agriculture. Traditional methods of multiple cropping and intercropping to maintain soil fertility have to be given more emphasis. Cereal crops can be mixed with nitrogen–fixers and grown together, such as maize and beans.
9. Grazing of cattle in forests must be checked. Rotational grazing and hand cutting of grass will save pasture lands. Stall feeding has to be implemented. Creation of more pasture lands and reclamation of wastelands for pasture development through the propagation of new grasses and application of optimum fertilizers need to be implemented.
10. Most important, local communities must be educated on the need to leave the dung alone, rather than burning it for fuel or selling it for cash. It will regenerate the land, paying rich dividends in the long run.
11. The location of industries must be carefully studied. Industries, like thermal power stations and dams, should not displace prime agricultural land.
12. The unplanned or haphazard growth of urban development must be checked. 20% of the world’s population lives in cities. By the year 2003, this will rise to 34%.

Conclusions

It can be concluded that land degradation is a serious problem in India that need to be tackled because shrinking of land resource base will lead to a substantial decline in food grain production, which in turn would hamper the economic growth rate and there would also be unprecedented increase in mortality rate owing to hunger and malnutrition.

References

1. Bansil, P. C. (1990). Agricultural Statistical Compendium (Vol. 1). New Delhi: Techno-Economic Research Institute.
2. Brandon, C. & Hommann, K. (1996). The Cost of Inaction: Valuing the Economy-Wide Cost of Environmental Degradation in India, UNU/IAS Working Paper No. 9.
3. Chopra, K. (1996). The Management of Degraded Land: Issues and an Analysis of Technological and Institutional Solutions. Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 51, pp.1–2.
4. Das, D. C. (1977). Soil Conservation Practices and Erosion Control in India—a Case Study. FAO Soils Bulletin, 33, pp.11–50.
5. Deshpande, R. S. (2003). Current Land Policy Issues in India. In Land Reform: Land Settlement and Cooperatives. Rural Development Division, FAO.
6. Hanumantha Rao, C. H. (1994). Agricultural Growth, Rural Poverty and Environmental Degradation in India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Jodha, N. S. (1986). Common Property Resources and Rural Poor in Dry Regions of India. Economic and Political Weekly, 21(27), pp.1169–1181.
8. Joshi, P. K., Wani, S. P., Chopde, V. K., & Foster, J. (1996). Farmers’ Perception of Land Degradation: A Case Study. Economic and Political Weekly, 31(26), pp.89–92.
9. Kapur, D., Ravindranath, D., Kishore, K., Sandeep, K., Priyadarshini, P., Kavoori, P. S., & Sinha, S. (2010). A Commons Story. The Rain Shadow of Green Revolution. FES.
10. Mani, M., Markandya, A, Sagar, A., & Strukova, E. (2012). An Analysis of Physical and Monetary Losses of Environmental Health and Natural Resources in India, Policy Research Working Paper No. 6219. The World Bank.
11. MEA (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment). (2005). Dryland Systems. In R. Hassan, R. Scholes, & N. Ash (Eds.), Ecosystem and Well-Being: Current State and Trends (pp. 623–662). Washington, DC: Island Press.

Fire is a natural process in rangelands and its ecological effects and interactions with abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem impact its function. Many rangelands have evolved with fire as a fundamental contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. In fire-affected ecosystems, many plant species need a fire to germinate, grow, or reproduce. The elimination of wildfires does not only kill these plants but also the animals that rely on them. Fire has vital beneficial effects on the flora and fauna of savanna which are affected by fire regimes. Thus, I support the idea of using controlled fires to protect wild areas and believe that rangeland managers can manipulate the productivity of rangelands and animals by the usage of the suitable burning frequency and season, and type of fire.

The use of fire ought to be organized cautiously in advance, and rest intervals ought to be implemented after its use where viable. To get the full benefits, prescribed burning ought to be integrated with different grazing management techniques. The use of fire to enhance livestock and wildlife habitats in rangelands may additionally supply a cost-effective and ecologically sound alternative to the current methods of managing rangelands. There is a need to verify the advantages of prescribed burning and provide extra proof of the advantages of prescribed burning to rangeland and animal productivity.

Fire suppression, in conjunction with other human-caused environmental changes, may have unintended effects on natural ecosystems. Several major U.S. wildfires have been blamed for years of fire suppression and continued human expansion into fire-adapted habitats, but climate change is more likely to be responsible (Westerling et al., 2006). Rangeland managers are confronted with tough questions regarding how to restore a natural fire regime, however permitting wildfires to burn is the least costly and likely most effective method (Noss et al., 2006).

The combination of heavy livestock grazing and fire-suppression structure has significantly changed the composition and diversity of the short grass prairie ecosystem in the Great Plains, allowing for the dominance of woody species areas and promoting invasive species which are fire-intolerant. Where the decomposition of woody material is slow in semi-arid environments, fire is crucial in the restoration of nutrients to the soil and allowing the grasslands to retain their high productivity. Fire can be used to promote growth out of season, as seen by late winter vleis burning to provide an early winter flush (Dube et al., 2006). This is also regularly practiced in summer and late autumn to supply green grazing for livestock. Plant productivity can be influenced by means of the use of fire to favor desirable plant life or to minimize the abundance of unpalatable species. Improvement of palatability and nutritive value of the present grazing and browse can be performed with the aid of the appropriate use of fire (Dube et al., 2006).

Although fire can occur in rising or dormant seasons at some point, controlled fire during the dormant season is most positive in increasing grass and forb cover, biodiversity, and plant nutrient absorption in short grass prairies (Brockway et al., 2002). In addition, however, rangeland managers should bear in mind how invasive and non-native species respond to fire if they favor preserving the value of a natural ecosystem. For example, in the summer, fire can control only the invasive spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) on the Michigan tall grass prairie because this is the time in the life cycle of the knapweed that is most essential for its reproductive growth (Emery & Gross, 2005).

Properly monitored and maintained, fire can be a powerful resource for managing plant composition, structure, and fuel loads on rangelands and other wild earth ecosystems. Regulated fire can establish and sustain a community of plant species in suitable country areas, providing essential ecological solutions that enhance most of the other resources of the country mixed conifer forests in the U.S. Sierra Nevada used to have fire-return periods ranging from 5 years to 300 years, depending on local conditions. Lower elevations had more frequent fire return periods, while higher and wetter elevations had periods between fires that were much longer. Native Americans appeared to set fires in the autumn and winter, and the land at higher altitudes was normal (Anderson & Morratto, 1996).

The loss in habitat proximity and sustainability and others have led the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to list several species populations on the Red List. According to a study on rangeland management of Finnish boreal forests, optimizing the habitat quality of areas outside reserves could perhaps aid in the conservation work of threatened extinction beetles completely reliant on deadwood. Some beetles and other forms of fungi both want dead trees in order to survive. Old-growth range lands can provide this unique habitat. However, most Fennos Canadian boreal range lands are used for timber and consequently are unprotected (Hyvarinen et al., 2006). The use of managed burning and tree retention of a rangeland with deadwood was studied and its impact on the endangered beetles. The study found that after the first 12 months of management, the number of species accelerated in abundance and richness in contrast to pre-fire treatment. The abundance of beetles continued to enlarge the following year in sites where tree retention used to be excessive and deadwood used to be plentiful. A key to the survival of these Red Listed species is the connection between rangeland fire management and increased beetle populations (Hyvarinen et al., 2006).

Fire affects soil moisture, temperature, fertility, infiltration rates, and water-holding capacity. This, in return, promotes seed germination and regeneration of desired plants. Old-growth eucalypt woodlands in Australia are designated for conservation. Management of these forests is necessary due to the fact species like Eucalyptus grandees depend on fire to survive. There are a few eucalypt species that do not have a lignotuber, a root swelling shape that incorporates buds where new shoots can then sprout. During a fire, a lignotuber is beneficial in the reestablishment of the plant. Some eucalypts do not have this unique mechanism, woodland fire management can be beneficial by creating rich soil, killing competitors, and permitting seeds to be released (Tng et al., 2014).

Society has traditionally molded public opinion to consider that wildfires are continually detrimental to nature. This view is primarily based on the old-fashioned belief that ecosystems develop towards equilibrium and that any disturbance, such as fire, disrupts the harmony of nature. More current ecological research has however shown that fire is a fundamental component in the characteristic and biodiversity of range lands functioning as natural ecosystems, and adaptation of species within those societies to natural wildfire, as well as their ability to withstand, and even exploit. More generally, fire is now seen as an ‘ordinary’ disruption, similar to floods, storms of wind, and landslides, which has driven species evolution and maintains ecosystem characteristics.

In the busy scheduled lifestyle, we all need a break to enjoy the adventure and nature around the world. A lot of people wish to visit some mountains because it’s an amazing place of ultimate peace and offers a more pleasant atmosphere than you can imagine. Whether you’re planning for a cheerful journey or sightseeing, mountains are outstanding natural wonders worth traveling for. In this essay, I am going to acquire certain useful information regarding the most beautiful mountains in the world and the reasons why travelers love to see mountains when compared to other places around the globe.

We all admire the appearance or the initial intimidation when we direct our eyes to the stunning mountains. I think everyone will find deep calmness when spending time in that place and attain a unique feeling of tranquility that needs to experience to understand. Some of such once-in-a-lifetime places are listed below.

First, it is Kirkjufell. It is situated on the north coast of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Kirkjufell is one of the most iconic and photographed mountains and can be looked at on a pretty epic 11-hour tour that also includes a visit to lava tube cave and black pebbled beach.

Mount Roraima is another one. It has more than 9,200 feet into the clouds and is one of the planet’s oldest rock formations. Also, hand-rounded inspiration for the Disney film up. Mount Roraima is mainly located in Venezuela, and a small portion of the mountain lies in Guyana and Brazil.

Just a thrilling ride at Disneyland, the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps is a quietly recognizable and fantastic place for photographs. You can observe its image on the Internet. Once you see it, then you’re getting more excited to make a trip to this place.

Climbing to the peak of Huayna Picchu is a great way to experience the Incan ruins. It looks impossible to measure a distance because it is definitely critical. Also, everyone has the opportunity to see the temple of the Moon, a ceremonial shrine that was constructed into a cave lined with stonework and niches.

And the last one is Denali. It was considered the highest peak in North America and dominates the Alaskan skyline. Denali is surrounded by six million acres of wilderness, and its dramatic base-to-height rise adds to the majestic beauty.

Once one understands the peacefulness and joyfulness in the mountains, he realizes there is no better place to go hiking. An experience through the mountains is truly one of the unforgettable moments, and I think that everyone should do it at least once. The most beautiful mountains in the world listed above are really worth the attention of everyone.

Hawaii is defiantly one of the best-looking places I have visited. Hawaii’s physical appearance is very diverse. Most people have an image of Hawaii as very open and full of beautiful landscaping, they are not wrong. There is also the city part of Hawaii that honestly reminds me of New Orleans but without all the Mardi Gras parades. Everything is mostly built up because Hawaii is an island. There are eight different islands that make up Hawaii: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and the Big Island of Hawaii. The main island is made up of five volcanoes. Honolulu is filled with artificial beaches, deep valleys, and wide-open landscapes. The weather is pretty close to Louisiana just with less humidity. There is a time called the wet season and when it rains, it floods due to all the valleys.

James Cook was the first European to make contact with the Hawaiian islands after Earl Sandwich. Hawaiians believe the original discovery of these islands came from the Marquesas and Tahiti, which was 1,500 years ago. The Hawaiians lived in many different small communities ruled by chiefs who fought over different territories. If anyone were to break the rules the chief had set, the usual punishment was death. This type of system was known as the kapu system.

Most of all privately owned land in Hawaii has about thirty-nine owners. Each of these owners owns 2,000 hectares or more. Six of the landowners control more than 40,000 hectares out of 1,040,000 hectares. Smaller unit ownership of private land is most extensive on Oahu, but even there the larger owners control more than two-thirds of all privately owned land. Two of the islands, Lanai and Niihau, are each nearly entirely controlled by a single owner, and on all of the other islands, landowners control about ninety percent of all private property. Pineapples and sugar play a big role in fusing Hawaii since the 1860s.

Hawaii’s way of living is very ‘go easy’, ‘no worries’. They believe family is a major deal, just like most other cultures. The people are very spiritual and honor their ancestors. The culture is well known for hula, which is a very graceful movement and gesture; this is not to be mistaken as the fast hip-shaking of Tahiti. When dancing, a woman focuses on her hands being soft. One of the major celebrations is called a ‘luau’, which is pronounced ‘loo-ow’. During these celebrations, they have a buffet and a show. I was able to witness about three luaus within a week and a half. Their main dish is considered pork, with their main dessert called ‘poi’. I do not recommend anyone to try it. Poi is very bitter, but the Hawaiians love it.

Hawaii is a very diverse state with a culture similar to that of North America, but at the same time different. With the information presented in this essay, one can defiantly how diverse this state is.

Our environment is deteriorating for the last two centuries, and almost every part of the planet has been touched by it in one way or the other. The primary cause of environmental degradation is human disturbance. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental degradation as “the reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives and needs”. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century mechanized the production and manufacturing of goods and equipment, which, in turn, used fuels as a source of energy, deteriorating the environment. Environmental changes are based on factors like urbanization, population and economic growth, increase in energy consumption, and agricultural intensification.

Environmental degradation can be seen in various manifestations. For example, land pollution. Through farming practices, excessive amounts of fertilizers and particles are used. Pesticides often contain toxic elements that can pollute the soil. In addition, large amounts of industrial waste are disposed into nearby rivers or lakes, causing tremendous water pollution. In order to meet the increased demand for goods, industries have to produce a large number of items that causes the emission of harmful gases that contribute to global warming. Several other forms of pollution include noise pollution, light pollution, and pollution regarding nuclear waste.

The question arises, what are the drivers of environmental changes? First of all, it is overpopulation. A growing number of people also implies an increasing overall consumption level for goods. This, in turn, causes an increase in the emission of harmful gases, which leads to air pollution and also contributes to global warming. Deforestation also plays an important role. Trees are natural storage space for Co2 and also produce oxygen that is crucial for many life forms on our planet. Through deforestation, large amounts of harmful greenhouse gases are set free which contributes to global warming. One of the big problems is the lack of education, as many people are just not aware of how their actions influence the environment. Mining is another driver of environmental change. Natural habitats for any animals and plants may be destroyed since large areas of land have to be used. As well as illegal dumping. For example, dumping waste into water bodies leads to the contamination of many fishes and other sea animals. Also, trash disposed of in forests can contaminate the soil and subsequently groundwater, since rainfalls may wash harmful substances through the soil into the groundwater. And the last one is agricultural pollution. The use of large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural processes leads to soil pollution and may destroy the fertility of the fields in the long run.

Environmental degradation damages the ecosystem. Global warming, sea, and air temperature increase lead to a higher probability for severe storms and floods. Areas exposed to toxic air pollutants can cause respiratory problems like pneumonia and asthma, moreover, many people lose their homes and suffer from poor hygienic conditions, which support the spread of diseases. Also, famine. Since water is crucial for all life on earth, its lack will lead to the death of plants and animals. People will no longer be able to till their fields or grow crops. Many poor countries rely on tourism as their major source of income. Following environmental degradation, this income will decrease, or even fully vanish. And finally, environmental degradation can lead to the extinction of species. Many animals and plants are quite sensitive to their natural environmental conditions. Thus, if these conditions are altered due to pollution or deforestation, these animals and plants will decrease in population or worse still become extinct.

So, what should we change? What is an effective solution to the problem of environmental degradation? Firstly, to stop deforestation. Forests are a natural habitat for many animals and plants which may become endangered if these forests are cut down. Moreover, we need our trees to store greenhouse gases and to produce oxygen. Secondly, reforesting. Planting more trees protects the land from floods and soil erosion. It also improves the fertility of the land and increases biodiversity. Thirdly, we should reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers should use composted manure and bio-fertilizers, biologically active products such as algae and bacteria that help initiate nitrogen fixation in soil. Biological methods of pest control such as importation – introducing a pest’s natural enemy in a location where they do not naturally occur – also minimize soil pollution. High fines for illegal dumping are also a good decision. Consequently, raising fines for illegal dumping will increase the incentive to dispose of trash at official waste disposal sites. Stricter government regulations are also needed. For instance, this could come in the form of the government setting high taxes for activities that harm our planet and supporting environmentally-friendly behavior with financial subsidies. By doing so, industries and also private people get a higher incentive to avoid environmental degradation. Our Western society always strives for the newest electronics, the newest smartphones, the trendiest clothes, and so on. However, this behavior leads to massive resource depletion and also to excessive waste production. In order to avoid adverse ecological consequences, we have to lower our consumption levels significantly. Education is a major key to mitigating the problem of environmental degradation. It is crucial that we educate people about the adverse environmental consequences of daily life behavior and how we improve our ecological footprint. Plastic waste is a big environmental cause of significant pollution and adverse consequences for our planet. To save plastic waste, we should avoid buying items wrapped or packaged in plastic. To reduce solid waste pollution on land, the reuse of materials such as clothes, plastic bags, and glass at home rather than disposing of them should be encouraged. This contributes to saving natural resources. Wastewater treatment is also of great importance. Wastewater facilities can remove nearly all pollutants in wastewater via a chemical, physical or biological process. Sewage is taken through several chambers of the facility to reduce its toxicity levels. And finally, nature reserves and biotopes. On one hand, nature reserves provide a space for our stressed society to rest and reload their batteries. On the other hand, they provide many animals and the planet with a habitat where they can grow in population and therefore avoid the risk to become extracted in the future.

Summing up, environmental degradation is a major problem of our time. Its impact can be devastating on the social, economic, and environmental systems of a country or region, as well as the global ecosystem. Depending on the damage, some environments may never recover. The plants and animals that inhabit these places may be lost forever. To reduce any future impacts, city planners, industry, and resource managers must consider the long-term perspective of development on the environment. With sound planning, public awareness, and community participation, future environmental disasters can be prevented.

An open-pit mine is to quarry or cut made at the surface of the ground for the purpose of extracting ore and which is open to the surface having it a large open pit. To expose and mine the ore, it is generally required to dig and relocate large amounts of waste rock.

The environmental impact is one of the most important things because the mining process can have the most harm that affects our environment, which hurts humanity’s liveability for a healthy lifestyle. Mining can cause the air, for example, having dust from waste work and tailings or processing without flue gas filters damages the oxygen we breathe and even can be death damaging to the lungs of the people on the mine site. Many effects of air pollution can create acidic rain, which is threatening to sky with many other disasters. The land space that miners work on can actually be really destructive to the ground with various things that could go absolutely wrong. Soil is a major thing and is one of the easiest to spread, for example having a pipe leakage or overtopping of tailings of the dam. It’s dangerous to the soil and plants that might be near the site, making the ground radioactive so it could be life-threatening to people who live close by. A similar effect with the land affects the water is a big thing because the impact can run through the soil to go into the surface water or groundwater. An example that the water can be harmed is by processing without wastewater treatment or pipe leakage. The environment would suffer especially growing plants nearby or animal life having their habitat restricted in the surrounding area. Open mines affect the herbal and animal life instantly with examples like clear-cutting trees and grasslands contributing to biodiversity loss, habitat loss, carbon emissions, and erosion. Mining procedures have taken this damage into account more and more in recent years, including strategies to re-establish and regrow natural habitats once mining is finalized. Therefore, the environment has a big impact on all the harmful things it could do to destroy the area.

Environmental staff are employed at mines to continually plan, undertake and monitor the rehabilitation of mine sites to reduce and manage the impacts of mining. Environmental management plans are drawn up before mining commences and suggestions for land use after mining is finished. Open-mined areas may be restored to areas that can be used for recreation, farming, or simply native vegetation. During the rehabilitation process, waste rock may be shaped to blend in with its surroundings. It is then covered with soil and replanted with vegetation. Environmental officers are required to carry out detailed animal habitat and plant studies before, during, and after mining operations. During exploration and the life of the mine, habitats for these species need to be preserved and care is taken to prevent the introduction of weeds or feral animals that could damage native species. Two scientific experts who help with the rehabilitation of the mine site are geologists and hydrologists. A geologist would need to put in monitoring wells at the point of compliance to assess any acid plume that might form in the subsurface and for groundwater monitoring for toxic metal migration mobilized by a low pH environment usually associated with strip mine waters. A hydrologist would be engaged with the modeling of the groundwater movement to determine the risk of mine drainage from the site. Either they or a geologist versed in fluvial systems would need to develop a model of subsurface stream flow so that predictions for future runoff and groundwater flow could be made.

Mining in society can have a positive effect or a negative effect, when the positive impacts such as employment and community development projects are important, they do not-set the potential negatives. Mining can affect negatively society by affecting the people who live in nearby communities, which can force them from their homes and land, making it not family-friendly for the families or locals.

In conclusion, even though there are many positive outcomes like job opportunities, that is over-weighted by the impact of mining is very dangerous that affects the environment and the locals and in community. When scientific experts are trying to reduce the harm that it can cause instead of polluting the air, water, and land, and hurting the biodiversity. Therefore, open-pit mining is a very destructive practice.

Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment. It is a major problem in Egypt as well as the world. Pollution not only damages the environment but also damages us. It has caused many problems ranging from lung cancer to the greenhouse effect. It is all among us but we continue to live in our own filth. What is the reason behind this defective logic? And then I’m going to examine the problems and solutions for this issue.

Pollution is a term that even kids are aware of these days. It has become so common that almost everyone acknowledges the fact that pollution is rising continuously. The term ‘pollution’ means the manifestation of any unsolicited foreign substance in something. When we talk about pollution on Earth, we refer to the contamination that is happening of natural resources by various pollutants. All this is mainly caused by human activities which harm the environment in ways more than one. pollution is damaging our earth severely and we need to realize its effects and prevent this damage. Pollution affects the quality of life more than one can imagine. It works in mysterious ways, sometimes which cannot be seen by the eye. However, it is very much present in the environment. For instance, you might not be able to see the natural gases present in the air, but they are still there. Similarly, the pollutants that are messing up the air and increasing the levels of carbon dioxide are very dangerous for humans. Increased levels of carbon dioxide will lead to global warming.

Further, the water is polluted in the name of industrial development, religious practices and more will cause a shortage of drinking water. Without water, human life is not possible. Moreover, the way waste is dumped on the land eventually ends up in the soil and turns toxic. If land pollution keeps on happening at this rate, we won’t have fertile soil to grow our crops on. Therefore, serious measures must be taken to reduce pollution to the core. To reduce pollution, people should take public transport or carpool to reduce vehicular smoke. While it may be hard, avoiding firecrackers at festivals and celebrations can also cut down on air and noise pollution. Above all, we must adopt the habit of recycling. All the used plastic ends up in the oceans and land, which pollutes them.

Environmental pollution has negatively affected the lives of both animals and human beings. The only way to control current environmental issues is to implement conservation methods and create sustainable development strategies. We should find some effective solutions in order to restore our ecological balance. First of all, we should make sustainable transportation choices. We should take advantage of public transportation, walk or ride bikes whenever possible, consolidate our trips, and consider purchasing an electric car. It is very important to make sustainable food choices. Choose local food whenever possible; buy organically grown vegetables and fruits or grow your own. People should conserve energy. Turn off electronics and lights when you are not in the room. Consider what small changes can lead to big energy savings. Use energy-efficient devices. It is also essential to understand the concept of reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Try to buy used items whenever possible. Choose products with minimal packaging. Buy reusable items. Remember that almost everything that you purchase can be recycled. Conserve water as much as possible. Dispose of toxic waste properly. Do not use herbicides and pesticides. Use natural, environmentally friendly chemicals for your everyday chores.

Finally, Environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems caused by human activities that we should overcome to see a tomorrow and guarantee our descendants a healthy life. There are many environmental concerns for communities around the world to address. We should always remember that pollution problems affect us all so each of us has to do his or her best to help restore ecological balance to this beautiful place we call home. Learn about the major polluters in your area to protect the air and water where you live. Encourage people to stop pollution, tell them everything you know about this problem, and protest local polluters together. The masses should be educated on the danger of different types of pollution. People should know everything about all consequences of the environmental pollution in order to prevent the worst from happening. Let`s protect the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the soil we use to grow our food.