What causes environmental degradation?
Environmental degradation occurs when nature’s resources (such as trees, habitat, earth, water and air) are being consumed faster than nature can replenish them. It occurs when the environment is not used in a sustainable manner. It also occurs when pollution results in irreparable damage done to the environment or when human beings destroy or damage ecosystems in the process of development. Major causes of such degradation include: • overpopulation • urban sprawl • industrial pollution • waste dumping • intensive farming • over fishing • industrialisation • introduction of invasive species • lack of environmental regulations. The goal of environmental sustainability is to minimize these and other causes, to halt and, ideally, reverse the processes they lead to. Environmental degradation leads to declining standards of living, the extinctions of large numbers of species, health problems in the human population, conflicts, sometimes violent, between groups fighting for a dwindling resou
