Lesson Overview Lesson Overview A Changing Landscape 6.1 A Changing Landscape -Describe human activities that can affect the biosphere. - Describe the relationship between resource use and sustainable development.

Lesson Overview Lesson Overview A Changing Landscape Living on Island Earth Like all other organisms, humans affect the environment when we obtain food, eliminate waste products and build places to live. Most of us probably don’t think of land, food, and water as limited resources. But today human activity has used or altered roughly half of all the land that’s not covered with ice and snow.

Lesson Overview Lesson Overview A Changing Landscape Agriculture Modern agricultural practices have enabled farmers to double world food production over the last 50 years. Monoculture, for example, is the practice of clearing large areas of land to plant a single highly productive crop year after year. Monoculture enables efficient sowing, tending, and harvesting of crops using machines.

Lesson Overview Lesson Overview A Changing Landscape Agriculture However, agriculture impacts natural resources, including fresh water and fertile soil. Fertilizer production and farm machinery also consume large amounts of fossil fuels.

Lesson Overview Lesson Overview A Changing Landscape Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Ecosystem goods and services are classified as either renewable or nonrenewable. A renewable resource can be produced or replaced by a healthy ecosystem. Wind is a renewable resource.

Lesson Overview Lesson Overview A Changing Landscape Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Some resources are nonrenewable resources because natural processes cannot replenish them within a reasonable amount of time. Fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are nonrenewable resources formed from buried organic materials over millions of years.