HIE - Human Impact on Earth Systems Module Overview

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Human Impact on Earth Systems

human impact on earthThe earliest human remains discoveries to date have been estimated at approximately 200,000 years old. While the timeline of humans may change as new fossils are discovered, it is arguably more important to understand that human population growth took practically that entire time to reach a population of 1 billion individuals on the planet - from 200,000 years ago to a mere 200 years ago. Since then, human population growth has skyrocketed. The next billion people added to the population on Earth occurred in only one hundred years, the next billion in sixty years, and the next billion only fifteen years later. As our population increased, our dependence on resources increased as well, and our impact on the Earth has become more significant. With a world population currently at over 7 billion, there is a tremendous amount of data that suggests that our collective influence is nudging Earth's systems towards a tipping point, and that the new "norm" may prove to be unfavorable to the majority of life on Earth.

Essential Questions:

  • In what ways do humans depend on Earth's land and water resources (which are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geological and environmental processes)?
  • How can changes in the global climate be related to natural and anthropogenic modification of Earth's atmosphere and oceans?

Key Words:

  1. Abiotic - physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms
  2. Anthropogenic - caused or influenced by humans
  3. Biotic - relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations
  4. Carrying capacity - the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation
  5. Flow resource - resources that must be used wherever they occur because they are not renewable or nonrenewable, wind is an example
  6. Limiting factors - the environmental factor that is of predominant importance in restricting the size of a population
  7. Mining - a method to remove rocks and minerals of value from the earth
  8. Nonrenewable Resource - any natural resource from the Earth that exists in limited supply and cannot be replaced if it is used up
  9. Volcanoes - a geological landform generated by an eruption of molten minerals through a vent in the earth's surface. The molten minerals that come up through the vent are called magma
  10. Natural Resources - naturally occurring substances that are extracted from the earth for beneficial use
  11. Ore Deposit - rocks and minerals that can be mined at a profit
  12. Over consumption - the action or fact of consuming something to excess
  13. Sustainable Development - economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources
  14. Renewable Resource - a resource which can be used repeatedly and replaced naturally

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