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Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.
The environmental impact of the oil shale industry includes the consideration of issues such as land use, waste management, water and air pollution caused by the extraction and processing of oil shale. Surface mining of oil shale deposits causes the usual environmental impacts of open-pit mining.
Water is one of the agents of deterioration. Its effects can be seen in these flood-damaged library books. The 'ten agents of deterioration' are a conceptual framework developed by the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) used to categorise the major causes of change, loss or damage to cultural heritage objects (such as collections held by galleries, libraries, archives and museums). [1]
Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. [63] This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments.
Habitat degradation is caused by the depletion of resources, in which human activities are the primary driving force. [50] [51] One major impact that the depletion of fish stocks causes is a dynamic change and erosion to marine food webs, which can ultimately lead to ecosystem collapse because of the imbalance created for other marine species.
Water pollution is a major global environmental problem because it can result in the degradation of all aquatic ecosystems – fresh, coastal, and ocean waters. [75] The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum of chemicals , pathogens, and physical changes such as elevated temperature.
Environmental degradation, human insecurity, and social conflict frequently accompany natural resource exploitation. The impacts of the depletion of natural resources include the decline of economic growth in local areas; however, the abundance of natural resources does not always correlate with a country's material prosperity.
Similarly, Kuznets curves associate environmental improvements with higher per-capita income, implying that the cure for environmental degradation is more growth. However, numerous case studies pointed out that poor people protect the environment against powerful interests to defend their livelihoods and cultures.