Some people believe that the Earth is being harmed (damaged) by human activity. Others feel that human activity makes the Earth a better place to live. What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Earth, is our home. We, as sentient beings, have the duty to keep it clean and protect both the planet and the other forms of life sustained on it. Even if it means protecting it from ourselves. On the contrary, all we have ever done is to take from mother earth and in return damage it, irreversibly. I agree that human activity has indeed, damaged Earth. The reasons for my stand point are explored below.

First of all, with the exponential increase in population, people now need space to live that is leading to deforestation. Deforestation, on a large scale, has led to deterioration of sensitive ecological balance which caused many invaluable wildlife species to go extinct. One example is the near extinction of The Great Indian Bustard. Only 250 birds are estimated to be alive. Even then, the space on earth is limited. This problem of limited space is so serious that people have used their technology to create artificial islands. For example Palm islands in Dubai is such a case that highlights this problem. According to a study, this construction is very sensitive to earthquakes and in addition, it has disturbed the underwater ecology.

Secondly, setting up of industries to generate goods to make our lives easier has caused tremendous pollution of water, air and soil. This situation can be witnessed if one visits the banks of Yamuna river in New Delhi, India. Once this river used to be a large, raging river. But now it is no better than a drain with all the chemicals in it from the industries surrounding that area. Evidently, no water based organism is now found in this river. According to a study conducted by Indian Agricultural Statistics Institute, the fertility of the soil in the state of Andhra Pradesh has declined substantially over the past decade. The soil, in this state, is rich in sulphur and other chemicals that have killed all the important bacteria and earthworms found in the soil. These bacteria and earthworms are responsible for nitrogenation of the soil that increases fertility.

Finally, both deforestation and increased pollution has led to increase in global temperature. This has led to the melting of the polar ice caps. If this continues, according to experts, the sea level will increase and slowly the landmasses will be inundated. Not only this, pollution has led to the damage of the ozone layer in our atmosphere, allowing the harmful Ultra violet rays to reach the surface. Over time, if this increases, it will cause skin cancer among humans and it will be harmful to animals and plants.

Thus, to conclude, we humans have only damaged and taken from our mother Earth.