40 Examples of Environmental Impact

John Spacey, updated on May 31, 2023

An environmental impact is the effect of human activity on the natural environment. This is usually negative but can also be positive. At a high level, most impact is related to consuming resources, creating waste and disrupting ecosystems. However, there are a large number of special cases such as the release of extremely hazardous chemicals or the extinction of a species whereby impact can be very high. The following are illustrative examples of environmental impact.

Agricultural runoff	Air pollution
Biodiversity loss	Chemical contamination
Chemical spills	Construction dust
Deforestation	Destruction of blue spaces
Destruction of green spaces	Destruction of natural heritage
Destruction of natural landscapes	Disruption of natural habitats e.g. noise pollution that disrupts nature
Energy consumption	Erosion
Fragmentation of habitats	Greenhouse gas emissions
Habitat destruction	Hazardous materials such as electronic waste
Heat-absorbing materials such as asphalt infrastructure	Human health impacts
Impact of industrial, nuclear and transportation accidents	Land use
Light pollution	Marine debris
Noise and vibrations	Pesticide drift
Radioactive pollution	Release of toxic chemicals
Resource overconsumption	Social and cultural impacts
Soil degradation	Transportation emissions
Urban runoff	Visual impact such as landscapes of concrete infrastructure
Volatile organic compounds from chemicals and materials	War related destruction including nuclear weapons
Waste generation	Waste management impacts
Water overconsumption	Water pollution

Consuming a renewable resource in a sustainable way can be quite low impact.

In some cases, supposed solutions to environmental problems can have unintended consequences or can directly create negative impacts. For example, covering a natural lake with solar panels whereby you impact natural ecosystems and blue spaces for solar panels that could just as well be on an unused roof.