Sustainable Development and the Environment: an Aspect of Development

The survival of man depends on the physical environment. The use of the environment has increased in order to satisfy the needs of men. Therefore, human negligence and collective actions for economic gains have put the environment at a disadvantage. Many of the natural ecosystems have been interfered. This has been through encroachment on forest reserves, degradation of wetlands, uncontrollable expansion of agricultural land leading to soil erosion and soil exhaustion, overgrazing and burning of grasslands leading to bear soils that are susceptible to erosion agents. A sustainable situation occurs when man's ability to use natural resources can be replenished naturally. Man's activity has outstretched the ability of these resources to replenish naturally. The interactions of man's current processes with the environment have strained it. The man's disturbance affects the interdependence of the atmosphere that is the lithosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere which lead to environmental degradation.