Learning Competencies:

1.Suggest ways to minimize human

impact on the environment
2.Explain the relationship between
population growth and carrying
capacity
Debate Topic:
The world would have a better environment
without humans.

Affirmative Negative
 Human Impact on the Environment

Humans impact the

physical environment in
many ways:
overpopulation,
pollution, burning fossil
fuels, and deforestation.
Changes like these have
triggered climate
change, soil erosion,
poor air quality, and not
potable water.
The expansion of human population and the
requirements of our growing human family
place strenuous demands on our environment.
Through human intervention, we have altered
our ecosystem forever.
 HUMAN POPULATION BOMB

Human overpopulation
has been a concern for
scientists since at least 1798,
when Thomas Malthus first
published his finding that,
without significant and
ongoing technological
innovation, the human
population would almost
certainly outstrip the
planet’s food supply.
 AGRICULTURE, DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND
GENETIC MODIFICATION
The demand to feed a growing human
population has facilitated notable advances in
agriculture, which was the first major human
innovation to enable our survival as species. Early
agriculture allowed hunter-gatherer cultures to
settle in an area and cultivate their own food.
Biodiversity Loss: The use of
some GM crops can have
negative impacts on non-
target organisms and on soil
and water ecosystems. For
example, the expansion of
GM herbicide-tolerant corn
and soy, which are twinned
with herbicides, has
destroyed much of the
habitat of the monarch
butterfly in North America.
 DEFORESTATION

Growing populations
must be housed, which
means they seek more
space to build homes and
cities. This often involves
clearing forests to make
room for urban and
suburban development, as
well as to provide building
materials.
 REFORESTATION

Reforestation is the
restoration process of
the destroyed or
damaged forests. Trees
are planted in that
particularly destroyed
area of forests to
recover the loss of
nature.
Reforestation is necessar
y to keep the fertility of
the soil and recovering
biodiversity.
 POLLUTION

While it can be difficult

to understand which
pollutants are associated
with specific effects on
the environment or
public health, it is
generally accepted that
air pollution can indeed
cause public health
problems.
 GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
Among the most critically impactful ways that
humans have affected the earth is our extraction
and consumption of fossil fuels and their attendant
CO2 emissions.
Paleontologist Sylvio Lopez
excavated the molar of a
Stegodon, an extinct relative
of modern-day elephants,
between Cagayan and
Kalinga Apayao in 1973. Then
in 2008, the University of the
Philippines Archaeological
Studies Program announced
the discovery of tiger bones in
Palawan’s El Nido!
 Mighty stegodon (Stegodon luzonensis) were the
extinct cousins of modern-day elephants who once
roamed the plains of the Cagayan Valley in Northern
Luzon. They died out just 4,000 years ago during the
time when the Pharaohs ruled Egypt.
 As humans rose to dominate life on Earth,
many species fell by the wayside. Gone are the
wild elephants, rhinoceroses, and the tigers of
the Philippines.
However, what’s more worrying is the
unnatural rate of extinction over the course of
years. Over 200 species are now disappearing
daily. By the time you finished reading this
column, other organisms have already vanished.
The Philippines ranks fifth in the number of plant
species and maintains 5% of the world's flora.
The Philippines is also one of the
world's biodiversity hotspots with at least 700
threatened species, thus making it one of the top
global conservation areas.
The Philippines is also
one of the world’s
biodiversity hotspots
with at least 700
threatened species,
thus making it one of
the top global
conservation areas.
 Ways to minimize human
impact on the environment
1. Stop using plastic bags
When you think about
it, we don’t need plastic
bags in our lives at all. It
can take up to 1000
years for a single plastic
bag to decompose, and
they are one of the main
killers of marine wildlife.
It’s important to reduce
your plastic bag usage in
every way that you can.
2. Skip the disposable
items
Single use plastics
and items to skip
include plastic water
bottles, disposable
utensils and coffee
cups. Say no to single
use plastic.
3. Know what to recycle
A lot of people are still
confused about what
plastic you can and
can’t recycle. Byron Bay
for example, now has
the ‘bag the bag’
mantra, which
encourages locals to
bundle their plastic bags
before placing them in
the recycling bin.
4. Go paperless
This one is easy to implement, as there are online
storage facilities that are more effective than
paper filing systems. etc.
5. Reduce electronic usage
Turning your electronics off at the wall or
unplugging them can save a lot of energy
expenditure.
6. Veggie garden and
compost
Growing your own plants
helps the environment by
reducing the emissions and
fossil fuel pollution used to
transport foods to the
supermarket, and if you grow
your plants organically,
without pesticides and
herbicides, then you’re
ensuring that the earth will
return to its natural state.
7. Read eBooks
There are over 30
million trees cut down
each year to produce
paper that makes books
alone. Reading your
books, newspapers and
magazines online is often
easier and cheaper than
buying them.
8. Adopt water
saving habits
Take shorter
showers, and if you
need to wash your
car, take it to the car
wash - it uses
significantly much
less water than would
be used at home,
and the water is
recycled
9. Leave only footprints
behind
There’s a mantra that says,
‘leave only your footprints
behind’, and it’s an idea that
we should all live by wherever
we go - especially at the
beach or public spaces. If
everyone was accountable
for their waste, our planet
would be litter free, greener,
and healthier.