What Are Environmental Imbalances?

Ecosystems maintain global environmental balance. Anything that alters the function of ecosystems creates an imbalance that affects all life on Earth. The destruction of agricultural land, lakes and rivers worldwide creates environmental imbalances so vast and widespread that conservation efforts struggle to keep pace with the damage.

Hydrologic Cycle

• The hydrologic cycle continually circulates evaporated water into the atmosphere and returns it as precipitation. The water you drink today is the same water the Earth's original inhabitants drank. Toxins, heavy metals and oils from construction sites, and agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, all get absorbed into soil and groundwater. Runoff carries these pollutants into lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. Pollutants that end up in lakes and rivers, such as nitrous oxide and sulfuric dioxide, are evaporated as part of the hydrologic cycle and return to the earth as acid rain. Acid rain causes worldwide environmental imbalances by killing vegetation in ecosystems, such as croplands and forests.

Deforestation

• Transpiration is the evaporation of water from plants. Reduction in transpiration also reduces cloud formation and precipitation, and causes drying of the soil. Deforestation, or the removal of large areas of trees, results in less transpiration of water into the atmosphere. Vegetation, needed to absorb water and prevent flooding, cannot grow on dry land.

Changes in Land Use

• Clearing land to make way for urbanization creates environmental imbalances by changing the pattern of water flow. Covering the ground with pavement increases water runoff, causes flooding, and decreases the replenishment of ground water reservoirs. Some agricultural practices poison the soil with chemicals and strip it of essential nutrients needed for future use.

Soil Erosion

• Wind and soil erosion contribute to environmental imbalances and human health problems. Each year they destroy cropland 10 to 40 times faster than it can be replenished. As the wind dries and removes topsoil, it not only causes poorer crop yields and increases water runoff, it blows dust into the air. According to the "Cornell University Chronicle Online," dust from wind erosion can carry about 20 human infectious diseases, including anthrax and tuberculosis. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, in agricultural areas, several tons of soil per acre erode each year. The impact of soil erosion on food production causes starvation and forces huge populations of people off their land.

Greenhouse Gases

• Greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor, keep the Earth warm enough for life to survive by absorbing some of the sun's energy as it escapes back into space. An environmental imbalance occurs when large quantities of greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and trap excessive amounts of heat. The additional heat, referred to as global warming, is purportedly responsible for environmental disasters such as, rising sea levels, floods and the melting of polar ice caps. The overabundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is generally considered at least partly the result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels -- oil, natural gas and coal -- industrial and agricultural chemicals and processes, and production of organic wastes.