Saving the earth Ms. Edwina

Humans and the environment Have you ever seen very old photographs of the town or city in which you now live in? Has your area changed? Perhaps there are more buildings or roads than there were many years ago. Maybe your town or city has more trees and flowers now than it had years ago. Humans, like all organisms, have an effect on their environment.

Look at both photos and try and list some differences.

Humans and the environment The number of people on Earth is increasing all the time, and people’s need for more and more space to live in, more land to grow food and more resources to exploit is changing natural habitats. Humans and the environment

Exploit to use something in a way that helps you or to use someone or something unfairly for your own advantage

Humans and the environment Damage to habitats and habitat loss are among the most serious threats to many plants and animals. Habitat Loss Habitat loss poses the greatest threat to species. The world's forests, swamps, plains, lakes, and other habitats continue to disappear as they are harvested for human consumption and cleared to make way for agriculture, housing, roads, pipelines and the other hallmarks of industrial development. Without a strong plan to create terrestrial and marine protected areas important ecological habitats will continue to be lost.

Habitat Loss Why is it happening? Forest loss and degradation is mostly caused by the expansion of agricultural land, intensive harvesting of timber, wood for fuel and other forest products, as well as overgrazing. Human impact on terrestrial and marine natural resources results in marine and coastal degradation. Population growth, urbanization, industrialization and tourism are all factors.

Habitat loss Deforestation Poaching Pollution Natural Disasters Overfishing

Habitat Loss When plants and animals lose their natural habitats, they are forced into smaller and smaller areas until they can no longer survive on their own. Habitat loss is causing many species to become endangered or extinct.

Endangered vs Extinct Endangered species are animals who are on the verge of no longer existing. That is there are only a couple left all over the world. Some examples are: Black Rhino Hawksbill Turtle Malayan Tiger Blue whale Chimpanzee Check out: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory?direction=desc&sort=extinction_status

Extinction Extinction on the other hand are those animals who no longer exist on the face of this earth. For example: West African Black Rhinos Caribbean Monk Seal Sea Mink Tasmanian Tiger Check out: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/11-extinct-animals_n_4078988.html

Homework Choose one animal which is endangered and prepare an A4 chart about it. Use the questions on your workbook page 20.