environmental impact
The effect that human activities have on the natural world, often measured in terms of pollution, resource depletion, or ecosystem damage.
writing-task-1Environment
IELTS use
Commonly used in task 1 to describe the consequences of industrial or urban development as shown in graphs or tables.
Examples
- The chart illustrates the environmental impact of different energy sources.
- Over the decade, the environmental impact of manufacturing increased by 40%.
- Reducing environmental impact is a key goal for many countries shown in the data.
- Urban expansion has a significant environmental impact on local wildlife.
Collocations
- assess the environmental impact
- The report assesses the environmental impact of new building projects.
- reduce the environmental impact
- Companies are trying to reduce their environmental impact through recycling.
- environmental impact assessment
- An environmental impact assessment was conducted before the road construction.
- significant environmental impact
- The table shows the significant environmental impact of coal mining.
Word family
- Noun
- impact
- Adjective
- environmental
- Adverb
- environmentally
Paraphrases
- effect on the environment: Useful when 'impact' is too formal; fit for general descriptions.
- ecological consequences: More specific to nature; suitable for charts about ecosystems.
- environmental consequences: Synonyms that can be used interchangeably in academic contexts.
Common mistakes
- environment impact to environmental impact. Impact is usually preceded by the adjective 'environmental', not the noun 'environment'.
- impact on environment to impact on the environment. Definite article 'the' is needed before 'environment' in most contexts.
- environmental impact of pollution is high to the environmental impact of pollution is significant. 'High' is less formal; 'significant' or 'substantial' is more academic.