What is human-environment interaction? In reality, it would make more sense to ask what is not human-environment interaction… because almost anything you can think of involves some sort of human environment interaction.
Whenever we do practically anything in our daily lives, whether we like it or not, we are interacting with our environment. Instead of thinking of humans as being something separate from our environment, it is more beneficial to think of humans as part of our environment, which also has numerous relationships that interact with the environment continuoisly.
What Are Some Examples of Human-Environment Interaction?
Human environmental interactions can take many forms, depending on the scenario. Some ways people interact with their environment include: clearing land for homes or businesses; recycling; buying cars; no longer hunting/gathering food
How does human-environment interaction affect both humans and the environment? Both humans and their surroundings are greatly impacted by any kind of human-environment interaction. For example, when a new building is erected, both humans and nature suffer from it. Trees must often be removed in order to make room for buildings, wild animals lose their natural habitats in favor of homes where they will most likely be killed or displaced.
Some human environment interactions include deforestation for buildings/roads, recycling, buying cars, hunting animals, and gathering food. Both humans and their surroundings are greatly impacted by any kind of human-environment interaction because many of our activities directly impact the quality of our environment, with in turn affects humans and other animals.
Another example is pollution. Many chemicals are dumped into waterways by corporations or governments that can cause dangerous consequences on both humans and animals, who may rely on water sources and other contaminated resources for survival.
What Does Climate Change Have To Do With Human-Environment Interaction?
Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to humanity’s existence and is largely due to human environmental interactions. When people burn fossil fuels (like coal and gasoline) they release carbon dioxide (CO2) which traps heat in our atmosphere. This issue has had more visible effects as of late, such as melting glaciers, rising oceans, more frequent droughts, and stronger storms. Many species of life are also at risk of extinction with every additional degree that earth warms.
How can we improve human-environment interaction? Focusing on sustainability and practices that promote sustainability is the main and best way to improve how humans interact with their environment. Sustainability is the capacity of both humans and the environment to endure extraction, manufacturing, production, and other human activities for sustained periods of time without such activities having adverse effects on either humans or the environment.
Sustainability prevents the depletion of our resources, so that life can continue after using these resources. Sustainability is often achieved through recycling, planting gardens, buying local products, and much more. Sustainability has other benefits as well – it reduces carbon emissions and increases community resilience in times of hardship or adversity.
Here at Moneyless Society, focusing on human environment interaction and all of its effects is one of our main priorities. If we can make all our human environment interactions sustainable, we have a chance at mitigating the effects of climate change and creating a safer, secure world for our children and their children.
Learn More about Moneyless Society and Support Our Work
We are active community builders, looking to make money obsolete by engineering better ways to live, through the implementation of universal basic goods and services, automation, technology, systems thinking, and much more. If you would like to learn more about our organization, Moneyless Society, check out who we are and what we do.
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