Our Env.

The environment is an important

issue even when society is faced with
economic crises, wars, and unending
social problems. It matters because
Earth is the only home that humans
have, and it provides air, food, and
other needs.
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• Food Chain
• The food chain is an example of a useful part of the
ecosystem. Encyclopedia Britannicaexplains that plants use
sunlight, water, and elements in soil and air to create food
for themselves. They are in turn eaten by animals and
micro-organisms. Humans are the top of the food pyramid
in any ecosystem because they use plants and animals for
food. Earthworms and small insects, like bees pollinating
plants, are all part of the environment without whom the
food chain would be broken. World production can be
gauged when one considers that 2,533 million tons of
cereals alone were grown in 2015 according to Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the
first Summary Table.
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• The University of Minnesota points out that the
nutritional value of food has decreased since the
1950s, "so we are now getting less nutrition per
calorie in our foods." The Organic Center(pg. 5),
explains that as crop yields increase the
nutritional value is decreasing, because of
industrial farming that relies on monoculture and
the excessive use of chemicals as fertilizers and
pesticides which has upset many of the natural
processes. Due to this, humans should consider
the environment important so they don't disrupt
the chain and cause problems with their food.
• Natural Resources and Products Derived From Them
• Besides food, ecosystems provide several other natural resources useful for people. The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity (TEEB) calls these resources an ecosystem's "provisioning services," since people derive nearly all
their material needs or provisions this way. The most important are:
• Water - Water is important enough to be declared a human right by the United Nations(pg. 1 and 2).
• Medicines - Many plants have been used as medicines for hundreds of years, and are even now exploited by
modern pharmaceuticals, according to TEEB.
• Clothing - Clothes are produced from plants like wood pulp, cotton, hemp, jute or animal products like silk, wool,
and leather, as listed by Natural Fibres; in addition synthetic clothes are produced from petroleum products
say Trusted Clothes.
• Wood - Wood from forests or plantations is used as fuel or in construction and furniture states TEEB.
• Biofuels - Biofuels, like bioethanol, are extracted from wheat, corn or biomass crops like willow, according
to Union of Concerned Scientists.
• Fossil fuels - Fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and crude oil used in transportation, energy generation and production
of plastics and chemicals, depend on dead plant and animal biomass produced by previous ecosystems that are
stored and accumulated over millions of years on earth, explains BBC Bitesize.
• Air Quality and Disaster Control
• The TEEB considers that trees and forests in the environment play an important role in regulating air and climate.
• Quality of Air
• Trees produce oxygen when they produce their food through photosynthesis. In addition during this process trees
also use carbon dioxide in the air and reduce its concentrations in the atmosphere, points out BBC-GCSE Bitesize.
This process regulates and maintains the carbon cycle. This is the reason cutting trees leads to global warming.
Trees can also remove pollutants in the air.