A Little Bit of Background Information
Have you ever stopped to think about what kinds of negative repercussions can occur by building a new neighborhood development, cultivate a farm, or chop down a tree? Such events like these occur throughout planet Earth all of the time. When one of the aforementioned events occurs, it affects the environment to a global scale by altering the fine line between land usage and land cover. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2000), “land use” is the human use of land involving the management and modification of the natural environment or wilderness into built environments such as fields, pastures, and settlements. Also according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2000), “land cover” is the physical material at the surface of the earth including grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, and water. Such components which define the term “land cover” are all necessary toward our planet’s survival, and therefore human existence.
The Problem: Land Use is increasing while Land Cover is decreasing
Over the years, the difference between the amount of land that is left natural versus the amount dedicated to farms, buildings, cities, factories, and other man-made creations has drastically changed. This is not just one commonly accepted opinion, this is indeed a fact. To further prove this point, here are some things to think about. According to a special report on land use, land change, and forestry (1999), “as of the early 1990s, about 13% of the Earth was considered arable land, with 26% in pasture, 32% forests and woodland, and 1.5% urban areas.” The figures have only gotten even more skewed since then. The very same article believes that less than 10% of the land on Earth is still considered arable land (as of 1999 that is). The increase in technology, the rise in population, and the rise in industrialization have all been the main culprits to this ongoing problem.
Biographical Background of some Scientists on the Subject
In one article in particular, three dedicated scientists shared their work and opinions on the subject of land use and land change. In their article entitled The Global Impact of Land-Use Change, D.S. Ojima, K.A. Galvin, and B.L. Turner II gave an in-depth analysis of how certain human actions have a tremendous impact on the difference between land usage and land cover. D.S. Ojima is a research scientist at the Natural Resource Laboratory at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. K.A. Galvin is also a research scientist at the Natural Resource Laboratory at Colorado State University and an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. B.L. Turner II is the director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute and a professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. (American Institute of Biological Sciences, 1994, p. 300)
The Scientists’ Findings and Insights
What these three intelligent scientists had to say was rather consistent with my original understanding regarding how humans affect the amount of land cover remaining. According to Ojima (1999), “agriculture, forestry, and other land-management practices have modified entire landscapes and altered plant and animal communities of many ecosystems throughout the world.” This idea that the three of them share is consistent with my thesis in that human activities are the main culprit to the decrease in available arable natural land. Also according to Ojima (1999), “human activities have resulted in removal of indigenous species, introductions of exotic species, rerouting of hydrological flows, and industrial contamination of land, air, and water.” This too adds to their opinion that humans have the biggest impact on land availability, even more than natural occurrences (such as natural disasters). They also go on to talk about how they have determined that one of the main human activities responsible for land cover change has been land management practices (such as fire grazing and tillage). “Over the past 120 years, land conversion to croplands has significantly altered major binomes globally.” (Ojima, 1999). They also cite the increase in industrialization and overall human populations, particularly in North America and Europe, as being another primary culprit to land cover change globally. Most of the idea that were shared by these scientists’ within this article stemmed from a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in August of 1992. (Ojima, 1999). These scientists’ findings and ideas shared within this article have greatly helped people who may not be very aware of how much humans are negatively impacting the environment just by taking too much land for our own needs and wants.
A Few More Common Opinions
B.L. Turner wrote another article in collaboration with another scientist named William B. Meyer, which directly stemmed from the aforementioned piece that he completed in collaboration with Ojima and Galvin. This article, which was entitled Land Use and Land-Cover Projections presented additional findings. In this article, he shows that human activities such as cultivating of farms and building industrialized cities are also “affecting the overall albedo of the Earth’s surface and the cycle of water and nutrients.” (Meyer, 1990). A chart which displays these findings was provided within the article. It basically shows that the different components that make up the Earth’s land surface have different impacts on the global environment in their own ways.In another study led by University of New Hampshire scientist George Hurtt, “new global land-use history reconstructions suggest that between 42-60% of the land surface has been impacted by human land-use activity since the year 1700.” (Hurtt, 2005). He and his team of scientists who conducted the experiment also illustrated that human land use activities affect things such as ecosystems, distribution of species, carbon cycles, water cycles, and more. This too is consistent with Turner, Ojima, and Galvin’s findings.
In Conclusion
In the end, it is extremely clear that humans constantly affect the global environment as a result of land-usage. Industrialization, agricultural land-use, and the rapid increase in technology and population have been shown in several studies to be the primary ways in which humans affect the amount of land cover on Earth. As Albert Guttenberg once said (1959), “‘land use’ is a key term in the language of city planning.” As long as us humans continue to use more and more land (for our own advantage), we will be continuing to have a negative impact on the global environment. No amount of “Go Green” outbreaks could offset that.
Works Cited Reference Page
**Note that all bibliographies and citations are done in APA format**
Ojima, D.S., Galvin, K.A., & Galvin, Turner, B.L. The Global Impact of Land Use Change.
University of California Press: American Institute of Biological Sciences. Vol. 44, pp.
300-304
Meyer, B. William & Turner, B.L. Changes in Land Use and Land Cover: A Global Perspective.
Cambridge University Press. 1994.
Hurtt, George. Human Impact on Global Land Surface Extensive Since 1700.
University of New Hampshire. 2010.
Guttenberg, Albert Z. 1959. ‘A Multiple Land Use Classification System’, Journal of the
American Planning Association, 25: 3, 143 – 150
Turner, B.L. Land Use Change and Forestry. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
November, 2000.