Industrialization: Although man’s industrial activities supply fundamental needs for society, they also produce a lot of toxins into the environment. Pollutants in the environment create raw material waste, health risks, an increase in the death rate, agricultural damage, and make the environment unhealthy for living creatures, among other things.
Air pollution: Air pollution, not just because of its influence on climate change, but also because of its impact on public and individual health as illness and death rates rise. Numerous feared phenomena, including the greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, acid rain, and smog formation, are brought on by human-caused releases of different air pollutants into the environment.
Water pollution: Human activities such as the dumping of sewage wastes, solid wastes, municipal wastes, agricultural wastes, and industrial wastes pollute the environment and make it unsuitable for daily usage. Furthermore, dirty water spreads or causes several illnesses.
Production of waste material: Rapid industrialization and unplanned urbanization release a lot of toxic waste material either in solid or liquid or gaseous state which induces a number of serious environmental hazards and also, poor waste management directly impacts numerous habitats and species as well as air pollution and climate change. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change, is released by landfills, which are the last resort in the waste hierarchy.
Deforestation: A vast number of forest trees are being chopped down in order to give timber and agricultural land to an increasing population, and forest land is being converted to farm land. The rate of deforestation is so rapid that India alone loses 1.5 million hectares of forest cover per year. Deforestation causes decreased rainfall, increased global temperature, loss of top soil, and changes in climatic conditions, among other things. From 2001 to 2021, 2.8% of tree cover loss in India occurred in places where deforestation was the primary cause of loss. From 2002 to 2021, India lost 371kha of humid primary forest, making up 19% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period. Total area of humid primary forest in India decreased by 3.6% in this time period (According to Global Forest Watch: https://www.globalforestwatch.org/).
Loss of ecological balance: The biosphere’s resources are overused, mismanaged, and misused, which disturbs ecosystems or causes ecological imbalance.
Noise pollution: Man-made noise from mechanized automobiles, factories, trains, aero-planes, social functions, and so on generates noise pollution, which has an influence on both biotic and abiotic environmental components.
Global Warming: Global warming is produced by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which are mostly generated by the combustion of fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas, and to an unknown amount by forest loss, increased methane, volcanic activity, and cement manufacture. The availability and deployment of advanced technologies, ranging in application from fossil fuel exploration, extraction, distribution, refining, and combustion in power plants and automobile engines to advanced farming practises, has only made such massive changes to the global carbon cycle possible.
Increased consumption of natural resources: Since the beginning of the industrial age, natural resources have been continually used to produce one or more items for societal consumption.
Extinction of Wildlife (both plants and animals): Since forests are natural habitats of wild life (both plants and animals) deforestation leads to the extinction of valuable wild life and loss of biodiversity.
Habitual destruction: One of the most serious dangers to plant and animal species worldwide is habitat degradation. Mining, dam building, fishing, agriculture, and other commercial and industrial operations destroy habitat, which leads to pollution. The loss of habitat has far-reaching consequences for the planet’s ability to sustain life, yet there is still hope for the future.
Radiation pollution: The genetic makeup of the organism can be significantly impacted by radiation from radioactive materials used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
Soil erosion: The anthropogenic processes like deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices and overgrazing induce soil erosion which causes soil moisture reduction, lowering of productivity, and decline in soil fertility etc.
