Anthropogenic refers to environmental changes that are caused or produced by humans whether direct or indirect. Environmental problems that resulted from anthropogenic nature are global warming, ozone depletion, pollution, water pollution, deforestation, just to name a few.

Global warming

The temperatures have been increasing over the years due to the damage occurring on the ozone layer in the atmosphere. The ozone layer is damaged mostly by the anthropogenic nature. Global warming is due to the ozone depletion that is caused by air pollution.

Water pollution

Water pollution is caused by the harmful waste or substances are dumped in the oceans. This has a negative impact on the marine life such as fishes and organisms that live in water, that uses the water or that drink the water. This could be from the by-products that comes from the factories, the unrecyclable material or any other waste.

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of trees which make up the forest. This happens when owners of the land or the government feel that the land where the forest is can be used for something else. Or when they want to manufacture furniture and other things from those trees.

The South African Context

Global warming in South Africa is caused by COշ (carbon dioxide) and other hazardous gasses from the factories that are released to the atmosphere. The other cause is from the rural areas where they are still using wood to make fire for cooking and warming themselves. Deforestation can occur due to various reasons. In South Africa, a lot of things are produced from the trees (furniture, papers, pencils, toothpicks, etc.) depending on the type of tree.