How man-made resources impact the environment

The creation, use, and disposal of man-made resources have significant environmental impacts, primarily because they rely on the extraction and processing of natural resources.

• Resource Depletion: Manufacturing man-made resources consumes vast quantities of natural resources. For example, making plastic depletes crude oil (a non-renewable fossil fuel), and making paper and lumber depletes forests.
• Pollution: The production process often releases harmful pollutants.
  • Air Pollution: Factories and power plants (which power the factories) burn fossil fuels, releasing greenhouse gases (like CO2) that cause climate change, as well as pollutants like sulfur dioxide that cause acid rain.
  • Water Pollution: Industrial waste and chemical runoff from manufacturing can contaminate rivers, lakes, and oceans, harming aquatic life.
• Habitat Destruction: Extracting raw materials (like mining for metals or clearing forests for wood) destroys natural habitats, leading to a loss of biodiversity.
• Waste Generation: Most man-made resources are not biodegradable. When discarded, they end up in landfills, where they can take hundreds of years to break down. Plastic pollution in oceans and landfills is a major global crisis, harming wildlife and ecosystems.