6.1 A Changing Landscape

Humans and other organisms change the environment when they obtain food, eliminate wastes, and prepare places to live.

• Because Earth is like an island, life is limited to the resources that are here.

Island Earth is also the name of a 1955 movie......pretty neat.

Humans affect regional and global environments through three major activities:

·   agriculture, particularly monoculture, which is the cultivation of a single crop

·   development of cities and suburbs, including conversion of farmland and destruction of habitats for other organisms

·  industrial growth, which consumes energy and emits pollutants

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In economic terms, ecosystems are providers of goods and services (natural resources).

• Healthy ecosystems produce or replace renewable resources.

• Humans must be careful about the use of nonrenewable resources, such as fossil fuels, which cannot be replaced.

• Sustainable development provides for human needs while preserving the ecosystems that provide renewable resources.

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