There are 3 major variables that drive environmental problems:

• Population size (P)
• Material affluence (A)
• Technology (T)
  Positive: technologies that help mitigate environmental problems
  Negative: technologies that help us extract and exploit resources more effectively and hence speed up environmental degradation

Therefore, the impact of human activity on the environment (I) is given by:

I = P x A x T

Linking this to the case of online shopping:

As P, A and T increases, the negative impact of human activities on the environment inevitably increases.