How man modifies the environment
The environment is a system whose processes are continuously interacting with the organisms that live in it. We have seen, for example, that rainwater changes the Earth’s surface, and that vegetation plays an important role in rock disintegration and soil formation. There are many human beings in the environment. Man is the only individual to be able to build and use equipment that can modify the landscape in a very short time. Nature would take thousands of years to produce the same changes as the ones produced by man. Human activities on the environment strictly depend on the type of economic activity and how society is organized. In some cases human activities aim at recovering environmental upheaval. As a consequence, man can be considered as an important landscape-modifying agent.
Special reports
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
18 February 2022
Medicine, climate or space exploration? The main scientific challenges in 2022
According to the international journal Nature, the year that has just begun will bring with it major scientific and technological…
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21 January 2022
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai
On 15 January, at about 5 pm (Italian time), the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, spewing a huge amount of…
2 May 2021
Citizen science, research conducted by ordinary citizens
When we think of scientists, we often imagine people wearing white coats, shut up in a laboratory working with test…
9 February 2021
At the origin of rocks: the secrets of paleomagnetism
The magnetic minerals of the rocks contains a veritable repository of information about its birth, history and evolution...
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28 August 2020
The Earth seen from above: signs of fires
This image was taken by the ASTER sensor installed on the NASA TERRA satellite platform. The image was taken on…
15 July 2020
Earth viewed from above
Remote satellite sensing: what it is and what it is used for In the scientific field, the images produced by…
12 April 2019
Easter with extinct friends
Easter Island is shaped like a triangle with three extinct volcanoes placed at the vertices, and has a total area…
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
-
18 February 2022
Medicine, climate or space exploration? The main scientific challenges in 2022
According to the international journal Nature, the year that has just begun will bring with it major scientific and technological…
21 January 2022
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai
On 15 January, at about 5 pm (Italian time), the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, spewing a huge amount of…
-
2 May 2021
Citizen science, research conducted by ordinary citizens
When we think of scientists, we often imagine people wearing white coats, shut up in a laboratory working with test…
9 February 2021
At the origin of rocks: the secrets of paleomagnetism
The magnetic minerals of the rocks contains a veritable repository of information about its birth, history and evolution...
-
13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
-
18 February 2022
Medicine, climate or space exploration? The main scientific challenges in 2022
According to the international journal Nature, the year that has just begun will bring with it major scientific and technological…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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The most populated cities in the world
In the last 50 years the world population has passed from 2.5 billion to 6 billion...
Soil erosion
Just like water, air and other natural elements, the soil may be considered a resource; it is, however, a non-renewable…
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13 May 2011
Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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13 May 2011
The most spectacular waterfalls
The highest waterfalls in the world are located in Venezuela...
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...