Why is land use bad

The loss of woodland to future prime agricultural land could lead to fragmented woodland habitats hindering species dispersal (Gimona et al.,2012). Therefore, any changes in current land use to cropland could have negative effects on carbon storage and the maintenance of biodiversity.

Land use and land cover changes have significant environmental consequences at local, regional, and global scales. These changes have intense implications at the regional and global scales for global loss of biodiversity, distresses in hydrological cycles, increase in soil erosion, and sediment loads [1].

Humans impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water.

Land can lose its productivity due to a variety of causes, including climate change, deforestation, overgrazing, poverty, unsustainable irrigation practices, political instability, excessive flooding, or a combination of many of these factors.

Land use change is the foremost direct cause of biodiversity loss with the largest relative global impact. Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23 per cent of the global land surface, and up to US$577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss.

Land pollution is a result of dumping garbage, waste, and other toxins making the land contaminated or polluted. The source of land pollution comes from the human element such as littering, and waste that is washed ashore from boats, oil rigs, and sewage outlets.

Land degradation may occur through different physical, chemical and biological processes induced directly or indirectly by human activities like deforestation, shifting cultivation, overgrazing, steep slope farming, over use of chemical fertilizers and forest resources.

Environmental Degradation

It causes the destruction of the ecosystems and the habitat. Deforestation compromises the cutting down of vegetation and tree cover which creates harsh environmental conditions such as intense heat from the sun and also disrupts the rain cycle. It results in soil erosion and desertification.

Soil pollution has bad consequences: It impacts food security both by impairing plant metabolism and thus reducing crop yields, as well as by making crops unsafe for consumption by animals and humans.

Land pollution is the contamination or addition of impurities of land particularly the soil. The contamination of land then leads to land degradation. Degradation is the deterioration of land quality mostly emanating from pollution.

Pollution can cause species to die out, and even cause mass extinction in the indigenous amphibian population. Amphibians breathe through their skin, and are highly affected by any surrounding pollution. Other animals can experience hardships finding food or even moving around with comfort.

Land or soil pollution

These chemicals seep into the soil and strip the land from any nutritional content, and fill the soil with chemicals or metals that damage plant cells and keep plants from obtaining nutrients and growing. … It also can change the plant metabolism and reduce crop yields [3].

The toxic chemicals present in the soil can decrease soil fertility and therefore decrease in the soil yield. The contaminated soil is then used to produce fruits and vegetables, which lacks quality nutrients and may contain some poisonous substance to cause serious health problems in people consuming them.

Soil pollution can have a number of harmful effects on ecosystems and human, plants and animal health. … Soil pollution can also cause neuromuscular blockage as well as depression of the central nervous system, headaches, nausea, fatigue, eye irritation and skin rash.

After-Effects of Soil Pollution

It can decrease the quality of the crop. Regular use of chemical fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers, pesticides will decrease the fertility of the soil at a rapid rate and alter the structure of the soil. This will lead to decrease in soil quality and poor quality of crops.

Soils that contain substances such as heavy metals, which may be toxic to humans, can pass those substances on to humans through crop uptake, leading to unsafe foods that compromise food security (Hubert et al. 2010; Brevik 2009a). … Soil degradation over large areas may threaten food security.

Long-term health effects from air pollution include heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases such as emphysema. Air pollution can also cause long-term damage to people’s nerves, brain, kidneys, liver, and other organs. Some scientists suspect air pollutants cause birth defects.