Global Systems

Vitousek, et al. Issues

Vitousek says the major sources of land transformation are pastureland, agriculture, and urban industrial activity. Agriculture (fisheries, artificial environments, row-crops) are high on the list of land transformation, urban industrial activity medium, and pure pastureland low, depending on human involvement.

Humans alter the oceans in many ways, although some are not easy to quantify. Population centers are concentrated near coastal areas and coastal wetlands are also altered. Fishing alters the ecology of the oceans by focusing on the top predators and throwing the system out of balance. Pollutants and other man-made activities cause algal blooms that are toxic to the ecology of the oceans as well. It is the relationship between the different parts of the food chain that are most effected by human involvement.

Part 3 -- The earth can be viewed as a system concept, with the forests the lungs, the waters...
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