Factors that disrupt ecological balance include natural factors and man-made factors. Natural factors include floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons, landslides, tsunamis, etc. The destruction of ecological balance caused by natural factors is called the first environmental problem. Human factors are the main cause of ecological imbalance. The destruction of ecological balance caused by human factors is called secondary environmental problem.
Second environmental problems caused by human factors are specifically manifested in the following three aspects:
Changes in environmental factors
Human production and living activities produce a large amount of Waste gas, waste water, and waste are continuously discharged into the environment, deteriorating environmental quality, producing short-term or long-term effects, and causing imbalance or destruction of ecological balance. In addition, it is the unreasonable use of natural resources by humans, such as blind land reclamation, deforestation, and overloading of grasslands.
Changing biological species
In the ecosystem, blindly adding a species may destroy the ecological balance. For example, the Welland Canal built in the United States in 1929 connected inland water systems with the ocean, causing lampreys to enter inland water systems, reducing annual trout production from 20 million kilograms to 5,000 kilograms, seriously damaging aquatic resources. Reducing one species in an ecosystem may also damage the ecological balance. In the 1950s, sparrows were hunted in large numbers in mainland China, resulting in serious insect infestations in some areas. The reason is that the natural enemies of the pests, sparrows, have been killed, and the pests have lost their natural inhibitory factors.
Destruction of the information system
Living organisms rely on information to communicate with each other in order to maintain their clustering and normal reproduction. If certain substances are artificially added to the environment, interfering with or destroying the information connection between living things, it may cause the ecological balance to become imbalanced or destroyed.
For example, there are many female insects in nature that secrete and release sexual pheromones to attract male adults of the same species to mate. If the pollutants emitted by people into the atmosphere can react chemically with them, the sexual pheromones will lose their physiological function of attracting male insects. Activity, the result will inevitably affect insect mating and reproduction, and eventually lead to population decline or even disappearance. El Ni?o phenomenon and the Antarctic ozone hole
Ike and Ein
The current ecological disaster on the earth can It is said that it is getting worse and has no lull. The spatial scale is so large that it spans the land, sea and air, and the time scale is so large that it affects dozens of generations. The earth itself is a living entity, the cause and effect relationships are unimaginably complex, and the breadth of ecological disasters is difficult to measure. According to statistics from the World Watch Organization, more than 10 million ecological refugees are caused by various ecological disasters every year. Let us take a look at the ongoing global, regional and local ecological disasters in the sky, land and ocean. .
One of the most eye-catching global ecological disasters is the hole in the ozone layer in the sky. The ozone layer has become increasingly thinner due to damage from human activities. The ozone layer prevents radiation from reaching the surface. If the ozone layer continues to disappear, Life on earth will be at risk. Scientists point out that as long as the ozone layer changes by 1%, tens of millions of people may suffer from skin cancer within 10 years. In 2000, the area of ??the Antarctic ozone layer hole reached 28.3 million square kilometers, which was three times larger than the previous year. The United States is larger than the United States and extends to the southern tip of South America. A hole in the ozone layer has also appeared over the Arctic, which will affect densely populated areas such as Western Europe, Northeast Asia, and North America.
Let’s look at Europe A man-made regional ecological disaster on land - the terrorist pollution incident of the Rhine River. The German national television station ZDF revealed the culprit of the ecological disaster of the Rhine River in recent years, namely the terrorist activities of the former Soviet secret agents. In 1986, large chemical plants in Europe , pharmaceutical factories and their warehouses exploded one after another, and highly toxic chemicals flowed into the Rhine River, bringing a devastating disaster to the Rhine River that flows through many countries. Dead fish piled up like mountains. Even today, more than ten years later, nearby residents are experiencing various The incidence rate of strange diseases is much higher than that in other regions.
A local ecological disaster unexpectedly occurred in Taiwan’s oceans - the Armas oil spill pollution incident. The Armas oil spill occurred in Eluanbi, Hengchun A shipwreck occurred in the Eastern Sea, and about 1,100 tons of heavy oil and diesel oil leaked from the ship, polluting the Eluanbi Sea and the coast. Under the blow of the northeast monsoon, the Longkeng Ecological Reserve in Kenting National Park was the first to bear the brunt, and coral reefs and other ecological resources were affected. were severely damaged. In the past two decades, ecological disasters caused by shipwrecks and oil pollution have emerged one after another around the world, causing a fatal impact on ecology, fisheries, and tourism.
It is not just modern people who create ecological disasters. Patent. In history, even in prehistoric times, many man-made ecological disasters can be seen. The ancient country of Loulan, which was prosperous in the Han Dynasty of China, perished due to desertification due to over-exploitation. This is a man-made ecological disaster recorded in history. A scientific magazine recently published a large number of human The hunting of wild animals has caused the mass extinction of prehistoric animals on various continents. This is a man-made ecological disaster in prehistoric times.
Ecological disasters can be said to be the most common disasters in this century. So, what are ecological disasters? Eco-disaster refers to the damage to ecological structures and loss of functions caused by special interference events, which in turn causes disasters such as damage, impact and death to related lives. The magnitude of the disaster can be large or small, and the time and space covered by large-scale ecological disasters The scale is large, the damage range is wide, and the recovery time is long. How did these ecological disasters come about? Although the types of these man-made ecological disasters in the early days were different, they had the following absurd similarities.
Enjoy the benefits There are always different groups from those who bear the damage, and there are also different groups between those who destroy and those who save. The scapegoat always repeats itself in history. The imperfection of the economic system always comes at the expense of the ecology, not only passing on the environmental costs to the people. , the state also needs to use people’s taxes to subsidize the treatment, resulting in an even greater gap between the rich and the poor. As a result, many developing countries have suffered many serious ecological disasters, such as droughts, floods, landslides, sandstorms, etc. With so many cases and lessons, The ecological disasters caused by our people's ecological ignorance, indifference and arrogance not only destroy nature, but even destroy themselves.
Therefore, ecological disasters need to be carefully managed, not only to recover afterward, but also to prevent in advance .First, the country needs to guarantee ecological security, because many ecological disasters occur gradually, which requires national monitoring and response. Secondly,
, individuals need to adjust their lifestyles. Too many ecological disasters are caused by ignorance, which requires personal vigilance and awareness. Faced with so many ecological crises, there is not much time left. Human beings must save and destroy as soon as possible. Make a choice between.