Physical environment affect and limits the activities of the humans.
Explanation:
The physical environment is no doubt the greatest limiting factor in the growth and development of man and his knowledge as the earlier man used to worship the nature as he did not know about the use of fire and feared the impact of the night and eclipse of the sun, that was the era of environmentalism.
Now man has masted many aspects of the physical environment but still, the physical environment has an upper hand and dominated the survival and existence of man. The impact of the physical environment can be felt as in the rise of the sea level due to the global warming.
<u>Climate change, increase in desertification and ozone depletion, large scale drought and landscape degradation decline in the food availability and the carrying capacity of the earth. The occurrence of the natural hazards like the hurricane storms and the floods that destroy life and property. </u>
Human activities affect the operation of physical environment processes, and the results rebound on the human world. The human factor is an important consideration in assessing climate, landform, and ecosystem changes. The physical environment provides resources and a platform to use those resources, but can also be a hazard to people. Therefore human impact as a subject is of special concern to physical geographers. This interest has developed from studying the impacts of the environment on human activities, to understanding the impacts of humans on the environment and attempting to reduce them. There is now overt recognition of the role of the human factor, wh ich is also reflected in an increase in applied work by physical geographers. The effects of human activit ies and physical environmental modifica tions range from being entirely local to global, and can be immediately evident or they may manifest slowly over time and become of concern at some time in the fu ture. The duration of the effects can be short-lived or everlasting. Many examples can be observed in our surrounding landscape. While this chapter describes and discusses only some of the impact of human presence in New Zealand, the conceptual context of humans as agents of environmental change
