Environmental imbalances represent either natural- or human-made disturbances that disrupt the natural balance within an ecosystem. The environment has to have balance in it because of the need to uphold the equilibrium of interactions inside food webs and maintain the cyclic flow of materials from the abiotic environment to the biosphere following to reach back the abiotic environment. Therefore, the steps that should be taken in order to find environmental imbalances entail the elimination of human-made issues that adversely influence the quality of the natural surroundings.
Solving the plastic problem could be one of the steps in fighting environmental imbalances because a lot of plastic is being used once and then thrown away, causing severe levels of pollution. Instead of using plastic, containers, cutlery, and packaging can be made of fiber, seaweed, cornstarch, mycelium, or even bacteria. Since humans have made plastic from harmful materials for certain purposes, making the same products from other materials that are less harmful to the environment is possible.
Besides addressing plastic waste, another step is concerned with the sustainable and intelligent use of energy. Today, there are multiple intelligent solutions for energy use, such as switching to green power and heating and cooling homes smartly. Both sustainable and renewable energy represent better options for fighting environmental imbalances (UNECE, 2020). To be specific, sustainable energy is attained resources that can maintain current operations without putting the energy needs or climate at risk. Renewable energy is derived from sources that have the capacity to naturally renew themselves at the necessary rate. Thus, the efforts to address environmental imbalances must focus on choosing less harmful options for the natural surroundings and facilitating the steady work of the ecosystems.
Reference
UNECE. (2020). Pathways to sustainable energy accelerating the energy transition in the UNECE region.