Human Influence on the Planet – Is It Good or Bad? (And Do We Really Know?)
May 2018
There are “only” 7 billion of us (well, 7.6 billion to be more accurate), and we’re just a tiny, tiny fraction of the amount of life on Earth. In fact, we make up less than 1 percent of all organisms!
Yet our influence and reach is incredible. We’ve done a lot of good – but we’ve also caused the extinction of 83 percent of wild mammals, and about half of all plants.
Human influence on the planet is truly massive. We dominate it.
A new study shows just how efficient we are in exploiting natural resources. Humans have culled (and in some cases eradicated) wild mammals for food or pleasure, and decimated plant life (mostly trees), on virtually all continents.
When I first read that, I thought immediately of over-fishing, logging and land development – and of course, all of these are huge.
But – as if that wasn’t bad enough – our human influence on the planet goes even further.
The Human Influence on the Planet We Didn’t Know About
It’s thought that some viruses can cause cancer by changing the environment that they live in, to make it more suitable for themselves.
When these viruses live in humans, and they change our cells to make themselves more comfortable, we may get cancer.
Now, researchers at Arizona State University believe human activities may also be causing cancer in wild animals.
In a paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the researchers say that our activities are having a negative impact on many species on many different levels, including the probability of developing cancer. They cite these problems for example:
- Pollution in oceans and waterways
- Radiation released from nuclear plants
- Artificial light pollution
- Pesticides and herbicides on farmlands
The study coauthor and post-doctoral researcher Tuul Sepp said “In humans, it’s also known that light at night can cause hormonal changes and lead to cancer. Wild animals living close to cities and roads face the same problem — there is no darkness anymore. For example, in birds, their hormones — the same that are linked to cancer in humans — are affected by light at night“.
Our Influence is Just Massive – What Can We Do?
It’s just terrible what we’re doing to life on the planet. We humans are such a tiny fraction of all the life on Earth, but our negative impact is unbelievably huge.
So, what can we do?
The solution is to live green – reduce our footprint. By eating less meat, flying and travelling less, and buying less “stuff”, we not only help the planet and all its inhabitants, but we also help ourselves. It has been shown time and time again that people who live green are happier.
As the coauthor of the report adds: “To me, the saddest thing is that we already know what to do. We should not destroy the habitats of wild animals, pollute the environment, and feed wild animals human food. The fact that everybody already knows what to do, but we are not doing it, makes it seem even more hopeless.
“But I see hope in education. Our kids are learning a lot more about conservation issues than our parents did. So, there is hope that the decision-makers of the future will be more mindful of the anthropogenic effects on the environment.”
 
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Warm regards,
P.S.  Don’t forget to download your free green living handbook “Live Well, Live Green” here.
Related:
- Get rid of all the toxic products in your life (you’ll be shocked at where they hide!). It’s easy – see how here!
- You can “green” all aspects of your life when you know how. Find out about green jewellery and blood diamonds here.