ENVIRONMENT CHALLENGES AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE USE OF TECHNOLOGIES

Earth, also called the world, and less frequently Gaia, is the third farthest planet from the Sun. The densest planet in the Solar System, and the only planet to support life in the entire universe. The life on Earth arose around 3.5 billion years ago. Earth’s biodiversity has expanded continuously, is currently home to 10-14 million species of life, including 7.2 billion humans who depend upon its biosphere and minerals. Earth’s lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of millions of years. Seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface is covered with water, with the remainder consisting of continents and islands that comprises of lakes and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. Earth’s poles are mostly covered with ice that includes the solid ice of the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the polar ice packs. Earth’s interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the magnetic field, and a thick layer of relatively solid mantle separated by Mohorovicic discontinuity.