Environmental Degradation
Humans, like all organisms on Earth, interact with both the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) factors in their environment. Environmental degradation occurs when a potentially renewable resource—one of the biotic or abiotic factors humans need and use—such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife—is extracted at a rate faster than the resource can be replaced, and thus becomes depleted. If the rate of use of the resource remains high, the resource can become nonrenewable on a human time scale or even become nonexistent.
For example, topsoil is important to farmers because crops are grown in topsoil. It can take as many as 200 years to form 1 centimeter (0.40 inches) of topsoil through natural processes. Topsoil can also be lost through various causes. One of the main causes of topsoil loss is erosion. Erosion can happen when water washes soil downhill or when wind blows unprotected soil away. Worldwide, topsoil is being lost to erosion much more quickly than it is being replaced.
If topsoil loss is allowed to continue unchecked, the land can be rendered permanently infertile through a process known as desertification. Many areas of the world suffer from desertification. Grasslands do not receive much rain. If the soil cover is removed by overgrazing or by poor farming practices, the topsoil can be rapidly removed by wind erosion.
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