Human activities impact on the environment on a longer run than previously thought of

Jun 2, 2012 10:32 GMT  ·  By

It's no news under the sun that basically every single one of the activities humanity engages in at any given moment in time affects the environment in one way or another. However, if some of us still take comfort at the thought that Mother Nature is quite capable of getting back on track and somehow fixing itself, the time has come to bring down this myth.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and from the National Science Foundation recently reached the conclusion that certain parts of our surrounding environment still bear the scars of long-passed events.

The region of land which came under their scrutiny is the one expanding from Georgia to New Hampshire, and during their study they went back in time all the way to when the first settlers came here and took to agriculture so as to make a living.

Apparently, the areas of land which found themselves plowed countless times so as to pave the way for crops react differently to contemporary pollutants than the regions man didn't attempt to “tame” back in those days do.

As well as this, it seems that the soil in areas where large cities were developed contains far more calcium than the soil in other parts of the country, and that, following the age of lead, crops still cannot be safely grown close to roads and old houses.

According to sciencedaily.com, the data collected by means of this study is very much welcomed. It allows both individual landowners and companies which are in the business of agriculture or other related activities to know exactly what they will most likely have to deal with when deciding to use various geographical reason for very specific purposes.

Moreover, the results they came across can also be useful to those who wish to set in motion environmental campaigns and projects aimed at the well-being of our natural world.

As a part of the Long Term Ecological Research Network, this research carried out in the southeastern USA is not the first of its kind and it most certainly won't be the last.

This is due to the fact that scientists all around the globe are trying to come up with an overall picture of how harmful substances somehow always manage to make their way through both time and space.