Human impact on natural environment and its implications

Title : Human impact on natural environment and its implications

Abstract:

Industrialization being advanced from the 18th century has improved a lot of material affluence, and has polluted and/or destructed the original quality of nature in the processes of extracting resources from nature, and producing/ distributing/ consuming goods and services. The current status of nature being polluted/destructed is termed the crisis of nature. The crisis of nature does not end in itself, but is linked to the crisis of human survival on the earth in that nature can exist without humans, but humans can’t survive without nature.

A wide range of human activities from lots of sources such as government, academia, enterprise, and NGO, etc. are promoting to continue the improvement of material affluence while maintaining the original quality of nature. In a word, this is the human activity toward co-existence between humans and nature being promoted in the name of sustainable development. In a broad sense, CCET 2025 is also one of them.

In such a context, this paper aims at explaining human impact on nature and its implications. In order to achieve the objectives, this paper will be composed of four parts as below.

Part 1: Human being is a species living with other species on the earth. The position of humans on the earth will be explained in relation to other species in order to identify what humans is on the earth.

Part 2: The effect of nature on humans will be explained. This is for understanding why humans can’t survive without nature. Two effects of nature on humans will be explained. One is the ecosystem services nature provides to humans, and the other one is how nature determine the mode of human existence on the earth.

Part 3: As the main component of this paper, human impact on nature will be explained. This is the explanation about the emergence of environmental problems leading nature to be polluted and/or destructed. Two issues will be explained. One is the mechanism of nature being polluted and/or destructed by human activities in the process of improving material affluence. The other one is the current status of nature being polluted and/or destructed in terms of individual indicator and synthetic indicator.

Part 4: As concluding remarks, the implications of polluted/destructed nature will be examined in terms of two aspects. One is to review the implication of industrialization. The other one is to review the concept and implications of sustainable development.

Audience Take Away Notes:

• Explain how the audience will be able to use what they learn?: The audiences can utilize the mutual relationship between humans and nature in their everyday life for minimizing the impact of their behavior on nature.
• How will this help the audience in their job?: The mechanism of nature being polluted/destroyed will help the audiences enhance their understanding of the way that minimizes the destruction of nature.
• Is this research that other faculty could use to expand their research or teaching?: If other researchers include the framework of my presentation in their research, their research will be more comprehensive.
• Does this provide a practical solution to a problem that could simplify or make a designer’s job more efficient?: Yes, the analytic methods of my presentation provide the designers with more efficient and effective job performance through identifying a wide range of sectors to be covered for a practical solution to a problem.
• Will it improve the accuracy of a design, or provide new information to assist in a design problem?: The realities of polluted/destructed nature identified through the access framework provide the information on the right and best accuracy and solution in terms of how to minimize human impacts on nature.
• List all other benefits: Enhancing the understanding on how nature is important to humans, how the crisis of nature caused by human activity is linked to the crisis of human existence, the positive and negative implications of industrialization having been promoted for improving material affluence since the 18th century.

Biography:

Dr. Dai-Yeun Jeong is presently the Director of Asia Climate Change Education Center and an Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sociology at Jeju National University (South Korea). He received BA and MA Degree in Sociology from Korea University, and PhD in Environmental Sociology from University of Queensland (Australia). He was a Professor of environmental sociology at Jeju National University (South Korea) from 1981 to 2012. His past major professional activities include a Teaching Professor at University of Sheffield in UK, the President of Asia-Pacific Sociological Association, a Delegate of South Korean Government to UNFCCC and OECD Environmental Meeting, etc. He has published 13 books including Environmental Sociology, and has conducted 95 environment-related research projects funded by domestic and international organizations.