Ecology today.
Human beings are now the most influential creatures on the planet. Our activities, from energy use and mineral extraction to agriculture industry and urbanization take place on such an enormous scale that the environment is being fundamentally altered. The composition of the atmosphere is changing. Water being polluted at all stages in the hydrological cycle. Manufacture and often toxic chemicals and being used in pest control and in countless industrial processes. Populations of marine animals a being harpooned and netted despite the threat to their continue existence. Valuable resources are locked up in consumer goods and materials and very little of this is recycled. The effects of human activities are endless and varied but they all have one thing in common. Their long-term consequences cannot be predicted without a thorough understanding of the complex was in which the biosphere works. Although ecology is not primarily about solving environmental problems its goal is to deepen our understanding of the relationships between living things and between them and the physical world. Ecologists are already proposing ways of meeting human needs that are sympathetic to the environment, and drawing attention to the ecological implications of just about everything that humans do, but to solve the problems, people must want to use this knowledge.