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2 Human environment interaction is the key to the survival of humans. Without the resources provided by the environment, it would be impossible for humanity to survive and reach where it is.
In the beginning, we only relied on hunting and a little bit of farming, but since then we have evolved quite a lot. As our need and reliance on the environment increased, human environment interaction evolved.
It’s because of this human-environmental interaction that we reign over all the ecosystems. However, unfortunately, because of this superiority, we are wreaking quite a bit of havoc on nature, and need to modify our practices.
In this post, we have discussed human environment interaction in detail including what it is, what are its three types, and what are some examples. Let’s get started!
What is Human Environment Interaction?
Human environment interaction, also termed human-environmental interaction, is a term that defines the interactions or connections between the human social system, i.e., humans, with the environment, i.e., the entire ecosystem.
In simple terminology, human-environment interaction refers to how we, humans, connect or interact with the natural environment and the ecosystem to fulfil our needs and how they react to our interaction, such as at what rate we cut the trees and how they regrow.
There are numerous other factors as well, such as how we adapted to the environment and survived, not just over history, but now, and how we plan to do it in the future that has current impacts on the environment.
There are both negative and positive human-environmental interactions. Negative ones include deforestation and overfishing, to name a few, whereas, the positive ones are upcycling or recycling.
Unfortunately, in current times, a major chunk of the human environment interaction is negative and heavily outweighs the positive ones.
Human Social System
To further understand human-environmental interactions, let’s analyse the specific characteristics of the human social system. The main ones are:
- Population size
- Social organisation
- Social values
- Technology
- Wealth
- Education and knowledge
The most influential factors are the type of society or social organisation, social values, knowledge, and technology, and they strongly influence people’s view of life and their attitude and behavior towards nature, which eventually impacts the ecosystems.
People use and modify nature and the environment to get benefits, which are termed Ecosystem Services. They are extremely essential for human well-being as they are a requirement for survival. A few simple examples include getting water, food, energy, farming area, and numerous more.
The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) research program was started alongside the United Nations in 2001. It analysed the relationship between Ecosystem Services and human well-being. Here’s what they found:
Coevolution and Coadaptation
Coevolution and coadjustment explain the ever-existent process of mutual adjustment, understanding, and change that the human social system and the environment have to go through to survive and flourish.
Both humans and the environment have an influence on each other, such as humans having to adjust to natural phenomena such as storms or earthquakes, whereas, the environment has to handle environmental degradation imposed by the human social system.
Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) Model
The Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model identifies and explains the interlinkage between the human social system and environmental degradation.
The DPSIR was developed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) to asses and manage environmental issues. Numerous national and European institutions implemented this conceptual framework to handle environmental degradation.
Here’s a graphical explanation of the DPSIR process:
What are the 3 Types of Human Environment Interaction?
There are 3 types of human environment interaction:
- The way we depend on the environment to get essential resources.
- The way we modify the environment positively or negatively to meet our needs.
- The way we adapt to the environment to survive.
Let’s have a look at them in detail:
Dependence on the Environment
We, humans, depend on the natural resources of the environment to survive, such as timber, water, oil, etc. We also require energy for numerous reasons like cooking, electricity, and industries. In short, all the things that we use in our day-to-day lives are dependent on the environment in one way or another.
Modification of the Environment
As mentioned earlier, humans depend on the environment to fulfil almost all of their needs. However, the majority of these needs can’t be fulfilled directly, and we are forced to modify the environment in one way or another. These modifications are both positive and negative.
The major examples of modification of the environment include:
- Clearing of land for agricultural purposes
- Cutting mountains to create roads
- Modifying waterways to make dams
Adaptation to the Environment
The third type of human environment interaction, adaptation to the environment, involves changing, settling, or adapting to survive environmental conditions. Examples include creating advanced systems such as air conditioning and heating to adapt to climatic conditions.
Top 6 Examples of Human Environment interaction
If you look around yourself, you’ll see numerous examples of human environment interaction. From the clothes you are wearing to the water you are drinking, everything stems from nature in one form or another. Let’s have a look at a few examples in detail:
Natural Resources Usage
In today’s world, we are heavily reliant on numerous natural resources, such as oil, metals, and timber. This reliance keeps on increasing as the population increases.
These natural resources are both renewable and non-renewable.
Renewable natural resources are those natural resources that after being used return to their original stock level through natural growth processes, such as solar power or wind energy.
Non-renewable natural resources are those natural resources that can’t be replenished or grow back at the same rate at which they are being used, for instance, coal or oil.
Due to excess exploitation of non-renewable natural resources by humans after industrialisation, there not only has been a negative tilt in the human environment interaction, but it has also caused climate change due to excessive harmful emissions.
Industrialization
In the beginning, we, humans used to hunt and lived nomadically. As time passed, we switched to farming, and then industrialisation came. All of these switches and transformations were done to cope with the growing population, and hence, the increasing food and comfort need.
Before industrialisation, our impacts on the environment and nature were minimal, because the techniques used back then didn’t compromise the natural growth rate of the resources used. Such as, farming was done using simple tools, without compromising the quality of the land or deforestation.
Unfortunately, with industrialization, which started in the 18th century, we started to extract massive chunks of natural resources, which is higher than the naturally sustainable rate of their growth. To put this in perspective, there will be a severe water shortage on the planet by 2040.
In addition to this, we started emitting large amounts of harmful chemicals and gases that negatively impacted the natural balance of gases in the atmosphere, caused global warming and climate change, and destroyed a large portion of the ozone layer.
Energy Production
One of the major examples of human environment interaction is energy extraction and production. There are numerous environmental impacts associated with this process depending on the production source, such as air pollution, climate change, and excessive solid waste.
There are three major sources of energy generation:
- Non-renewable sources (fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas)
- Nuclear energy
- Renewable sources (solar power or wind energy)
Even though non-renewable sources, i.e., fossil fuels are inexpensive and easy to extract due to the established procedures, they produce industrial waste, such as mercury, and emit harmful greenhouse gases that lead to global warming and climate change.
If we compare fossil fuels to nuclear energy, the latter wins in terms of harmful emissions but loses the sustainability criteria due to radioactive waste production, a danger to human health.
Now, if we look at renewable energy sources, they clearly win in terms of positive human environment interaction because they neither produce harmful greenhouse gases nor hazardous waste. furthermore, they are never-ending so we don’t need to worry about finding alternatives in the near future.
Mining
Mining involves the extraction of materials and resources from the earth, for instance, coal, gold, and iron ore.
Mining operations are directly related to deforestation, land degradation, and agricultural land destruction as massive areas of land are required to look for minerals.
In addition to this, mining also impacts the balance of human environment interaction by causing soil erosion, reducing air quality, causing noise pollution, polluting clean water, and wiping out biodiversity.
Apart from destroying the environment, mining activities have a negative impact on human health. The chemicals leaching from the mining procedures get into groundwater and soil and eventually, end up in food and drinking water. A massive chunk of landscapes never recover from the adversities caused by mining, while others take decades to heal their ecosystems.
Environmental Degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the natural environment due to excess emissions of pollutants, overconsumption of natural resources, and the destruction of ecosystems.
This process can happen either naturally or anthropogenically, i.e., caused by human activities.
The major drivers of environmental degradation are population growth, industrialisation, urbanisation, manufacturing, fossil fuels, and agricultural activities. They destroy biodiversity, soil, air, and water quality, and displace wildlife, leading to the extinction of numerous species.
Deforestation
Deforestation results from poor human environment interaction, when we wipe out entire chunks of forests to expand agricultural lands or extract wood for day-to-day activities in such frequency that it becomes impossible for them to replenish.
As a result of deforestation, many plant and wildlife species have become extinct. This not only negatively impacts the food chain but is slowly wiping away biodiversity. Apart from this, deforestation causes soil erosion, leading to soil quality deterioration.
The soil wiped away due to deforestation ends in the streams and rivers, negatively affecting the water quality.
How can Humans have Positive Interactions with the Natural Environment?
Here’s how we can improve human environment interactions:
Living an Eco-Friendly Day-to-Day Life
The average carbon footprint of a single person is 4 tons, which goes as high as 16 in the US. This clearly shows the lack of concern of human beings toward positive human environment interactions. So, what’s the solution?
We should try to switch our daily activities to more environmentally sustainable ones. Here’s how:
- Start using eco-friendly tech, for example, appliances with Energy Star certifications
- Eat sustainably
- Stop purchasing from fast fashion companies
- Reduce your plastic usage
- Start using eco-friendly day-to-day products, such as biodegradable garbage bags or reusable grocery bags
To learn more about eco-living, head over to our post 15 Sustainable Living Ideas to Incorporate into Daily Life.
Green Construction
The construction sector accounts for 23% of air pollution, 40% of drinking water pollution, and 50% of landfill mass. The best ways to counter this are avoiding unnecessary construction, switching to green buildings, and adopting sustainable construction practices that use minimal water and fossil fuels, and generate the least waste. To learn more about green buildings and some of the recent developments in this area, head over to our post on Green Building Innovations | 6 Ideas for a Better Built Environment.
Eco-Tourism
The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines eco-tourism as:
“Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education”
Here are a few ways in which you can embrace eco-tourism:
- Choose a transportation source that has the least carbon footprint. If you are flying, then don’t forget to go through our sustainable flying guide.
- Purchase locally sourced and made souvenirs and crafts, rather than imported ones.
- Choose eco-friendly accommodations and tour operators.
- Travel through public transportation.
- Respect the wildlife and green areas.
- Try following as many sustainable living tips as you can while traveling.
Wildlife Protection
No doubt, one of the biggest attractions of any location is its wildlife. However, because of human beings’ obsession with exotic animals, numerous of their species have gone extinct or are on the brink of extinction. For context, have a look at The 5 Most Endangered Animals in 2022.
The best way to respect them while traveling is to avoid touching or feeding them in the wild.
In addition to this, avoid purchasing souvenirs that come from animals, such as elephants, birds, or snakes. Conducting any such purchase comes under illegal wildlife trade, and we are sure you don’t want to support any such activities!
Water Management
Humans are dependent on water for their survival, yet we don’t manage it intelligently. In the past 50 years, domestic water usage has gone up by 600%, most of which, unfortunately, gets wasted. You can avoid water wastage by following these tips:
- Turn off the tap while brushing teeth, or other such activities during which we aren’t using water but keep the tap open regardless.
- Support companies that are serious about their environmental impact as they generally use less water than their counterparts.
- Avoid fast fashion as the fashion industry is amongst the biggest consumers of water, which is around 79 trillion litres of water annually.
To learn more about water conservation, head over to our post on ‘Eco-Friendly Water Management: 15 Practical Ways to Conserve Water at Home and in Your Yard‘.
We hope, by now, you will have learned quite a bit about human environment interaction. Let us know in the comments below how you plan on improving your interaction with the natural environment. Also, don’t forget to share our post to spread awareness. Let’s take action before it’s too late!
