Habitat Destruction

 Agriculture is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with 70% due to agricultural expansion.

What to do: We can all attempt to change our diets and methods to verticle farming or hydroponics. Farming methods that would increase efficiancy but reduce land use and pollution.

 Globally, we deforest around ten million hectares of forest every year. That’s an area the size of Portugal every year. 

What to do: Plant trees and vegetation

Buy products made from sustainable materials such as bamboo

Wood/timber is not a sustainable resource 

 The process of extracting useful materials from the surface and under the Earth, including bodies of water such as oceans.   

Mining is very harmful because it causes unrecoverable loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, erosion, water, air, and soil pollution. Mining can also trigger the creation of sinkholes. Mining is hazardous for humans due to collapses, explosions, toxic fumes temperatures, and pressure. What to do: Educate workers in industries, such as clean energy that are more sustainable and safer. Invest in clean energy. Rehabilitate mining sites. Reduce waste. Pass laws to restrict mining.

Over 90% of wells drilled currently use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method that aids in the oil and natural gas extraction from sedimentary rock, and coal. Fracking flushes water mixed with sand and chemicals through pipes with holes that are buried sometimes thousands of feet underground. The flushing creates fractures that push trapped fossil fuels out and rise to the surface. The negative environmental concerns include water consumption, water pollution, air pollution, and earthquakes. What can we do: Educate and bring awareness to local communities to try to prevent. Work with the government to try to eliminate or reduce fracking. Invest in education and installation of renewable energy.

Urban development's rapid and uncontrolled expansion includes commercial, single-use zoning and a heavy reliance on private automobiles.  Major environmental issues associated with sprawl are habitat loss,  pollution, and a big decline in biodiversity. What to do:  Preserving natural resources such as parks, open spaces, and unused land.

Rehabilitate run-down or polluted cities. Reforming government programs and policies to discourage sprawl.

Trawling involves dragging heavy tools or machinery along the ocean floor at various depths. These methods destroy all in their path, including non-target species of flora and fauna. What to do: We can all work on changing our diet to rely less on trawled food sources and products. There are more environmentally friendly methods that will produce less waste and destruction such as well-managed aquaculture.

Natural disasters have a devastating impact on our planet and all its inhabitants. What to do? We can anticipate and try to alter our way of living to prepare for known disasters in our areas. Tornado sirens and weather monitoring are examples of proactive measures but we can also make further attempts to adjust our way of living to ever changing surroundings.

Courses:

   Wildfire Awareness and Risk Assessment 

Cyanide,  pesticides,  herbicides and other dangerous chemicals destroy vastly beyond targeted species and the environment. Cyanide bombing ,although banned in many countries, is still being used illegally today.

   China has been accused of using cyanide to drug and capture tropical fish for the pet trade. This kills surrounding coral reefs on which a lot of marine life depends. It makes the fish captured very sick or can be fatal in a lot of cases.

  Pesticides are used in multiple commercial and residential applications such as lawn care and house pest prevention. Like most poisoning it goes well beyond targeted species into the food chain. When it gets eaten it kills or makes other species very ill.

  Herbicides ,in the same respect of pesticides, causes so much harm beyond the targeted species. It kills flora that may be native or delicate to a specified area. Many, if not all, companies that claim to restore and rehabilitate environments use herbicides as a "quick temporary fix" as opposed to pulling problem species by the roots.

  Other poisonings do occur on a corporate and personal level. This includes using herbicides in war, tactical combat, corporate fueds and the poisoning of food left out for animals. 

  We need to be looking into natural solutions and prevent manufacturers from making these unnatural poisons that do way more harm than good. We need to find methods to hold guilty persons and corporation saccountable for the detriment they put on our environment.