The natural environment or natural world encompasses all
living and
non-living things occurring
naturally, meaning in this case not
artificial. The term is most often applied to
Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living
species,
climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:
In contrast to the natural environment is the
built environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural
land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud
hut or a
photovoltaic system in the
desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hence
beaver dams, and the works of
mound-building termites, are thought of as natural. (Full article...)
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all
living and
non-living things occurring
naturally, meaning in this case not
artificial. The term is most often applied to
Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living
species,
climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:
In contrast to the natural environment is the
built environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural
land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud
hut or a
photovoltaic system in the
desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hence
beaver dams, and the works of
mound-building termites, are thought of as natural.
People cannot find absolutely natural environments on Earth, and naturalness usually varies in a continuum, from 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. The massive environmental changes of humanity in the
Anthropocene have fundamentally effected all natural environments: including from
climate change,
biodiversity loss and pollution from
plastic and
other chemicals in the
air and
water. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform. If, for instance, in an agricultural field, the
mineralogic composition and the
structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil, but the structure is quite different. (Full article...)
Sustainable development is an approach to growth and
human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The aim is to have a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining
planetary integrity. Sustainable development aims to balance the needs of the
economy,
environment, and
social well-being. The
Brundtland Report in 1987 helped to make the concept of sustainable development better known.
Sustainable development overlaps with the idea of
sustainability which is a
normative concept.
UNESCO formulated a distinction between the two concepts as follows: "Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it." There are some problems with the concept of sustainable development. Some scholars say it is an
oxymoron because according to them, development is inherently unsustainable. Others commentators are disappointed in the lack of progress that has been achieved so far. Part of the problem is that development itself is not consistently defined.: 16 (Full article...)
... that critics objected to Dangers of the Mail in the 1930s for government support of lewdness and in the 2000s for creating a hostile work environment?
... that Salar de Pajonales in Chile has been used as an analogue for environments on
Mars?
... that clothing physiology is the study of how
clothing interacts with the human body and the environment?
... that the destructible environment effects in The Incredible Hulk were so extensive that two additional artists were added during the game's development?
... that "Look at the world" is a 1996 choral harvest
anthem with text and music by
John Rutter, written for
CPRE "on the theme of the environment and our responsibility towards it"?
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the
soil usually for assisting in growing crops. In crop production it is mainly used to replace missing rainfall in periods of
drought, but also to protect plants against frost. Additionally irrigation helps to suppress weed growing in rice fields. In contrast,
agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is sometimes referred to as
dryland farming or as rain fed farming. Environmental problems such depletion of underground aquifers, ground subsidence, buildup of toxic salts on soil surface in areas of high evaporation, overirrigation and the possibility of water pollution.
Image 10Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate of
autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (from Ecosystem)
Image 11Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (Olson et al. 2001, BioScience) (from Ecoregion)
Image 15Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking novel, Silent Spring, in 1962, bringing the study of environmental science to the forefront of society. (from Environmental science)
Image 16Climbing
ferns overtake
cypress trees in the Everglades. The ferns act as "fire ladders" that can destroy trees that would otherwise survive fires. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 17A map of the
Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. (from Ecoregion)
Image 25View of Earth, taken in 1972 by the
Apollo 17 crew. Approximately 71% of
Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) consists of
ocean (from Ecoregion)
Image 26Compartments established by C&SF projects that separated the historic Everglades into Water Conservation Areas and the Everglades Agricultural Area. One-fourth of the original Everglades is preserved in
Everglades National Park. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 27Few creatures make the
ice shelves of
Antarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (from Habitat)
Image 33A false color composite of the greater Boston area, created using remote sensing technology, reveals otherwise not visible characteristics about the land cover and the health of the surrounding ecosystems. (from Environmental science)
Image 34A map of the bioregions of Canada and the US. (from Ecoregion)
Image 35Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat)
Image 36Environmental science examines the effects of humans on nature, such as the
Glen Canyon Dam in the United States (from Environmental science)
Image 40Biodiversity of a coral reef. Corals adapt and modify their environment by forming
calcium carbonate skeletons. This provides growing conditions for future generations and forms a habitat for many other species. (from Environmental science)
Image 41Aerial view of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades bordered by sugarcane fields on the right (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 42A team of British researchers found a hole in the ozone layer forming over Antarctica, the discovery of which would later influence the Montreal Protocol in 1987. (from Environmental science)
Image 43Proportion of forest area by forest area density class and global ecological zone, 2015, from
Food and Agriculture Organization publication The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief (from Ecoregion)
Image 44Cattails indicate the presence of
phosphorus in the water. Cattails are an invasive species; they crowd out
sawgrass and grow too thick to allow nesting for birds and alligators. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 47Loch Lomond in
Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number of
introductions in the 1970s restructured its
food web. (from Ecosystem)
Image 48Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right) (from Environmental science)
Image 54The Paris Agreement (formerly the Kyoto Protocol) is adopted in 2016. Nearly every country in the United Nations has signed the treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (from Environmental science)
There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see
waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.
... that the concept of
reduce,
re-use, and
recycle as three equal options, but they are instead meant to be a hierarchy, in order of importance?
... that rivers have been classified by many criteria, including their
topography, their
biotic status and their relevance to white water
rafting and
canoeing activities?
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all
living and
non-living things occurring
naturally, meaning in this case not
artificial. The term is most often applied to
Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living
species,
climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:
In contrast to the natural environment is the
built environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural
land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud
hut or a
photovoltaic system in the
desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hence
beaver dams, and the works of
mound-building termites, are thought of as natural. (Full article...)
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all
living and
non-living things occurring
naturally, meaning in this case not
artificial. The term is most often applied to
Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living
species,
climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:
In contrast to the natural environment is the
built environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural
land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud
hut or a
photovoltaic system in the
desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hence
beaver dams, and the works of
mound-building termites, are thought of as natural.
People cannot find absolutely natural environments on Earth, and naturalness usually varies in a continuum, from 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. The massive environmental changes of humanity in the
Anthropocene have fundamentally effected all natural environments: including from
climate change,
biodiversity loss and pollution from
plastic and
other chemicals in the
air and
water. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform. If, for instance, in an agricultural field, the
mineralogic composition and the
structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil, but the structure is quite different. (Full article...)
Sustainable development is an approach to growth and
human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The aim is to have a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining
planetary integrity. Sustainable development aims to balance the needs of the
economy,
environment, and
social well-being. The
Brundtland Report in 1987 helped to make the concept of sustainable development better known.
Sustainable development overlaps with the idea of
sustainability which is a
normative concept.
UNESCO formulated a distinction between the two concepts as follows: "Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it." There are some problems with the concept of sustainable development. Some scholars say it is an
oxymoron because according to them, development is inherently unsustainable. Others commentators are disappointed in the lack of progress that has been achieved so far. Part of the problem is that development itself is not consistently defined.: 16 (Full article...)
... that critics objected to Dangers of the Mail in the 1930s for government support of lewdness and in the 2000s for creating a hostile work environment?
... that Salar de Pajonales in Chile has been used as an analogue for environments on
Mars?
... that clothing physiology is the study of how
clothing interacts with the human body and the environment?
... that the destructible environment effects in The Incredible Hulk were so extensive that two additional artists were added during the game's development?
... that "Look at the world" is a 1996 choral harvest
anthem with text and music by
John Rutter, written for
CPRE "on the theme of the environment and our responsibility towards it"?
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the
soil usually for assisting in growing crops. In crop production it is mainly used to replace missing rainfall in periods of
drought, but also to protect plants against frost. Additionally irrigation helps to suppress weed growing in rice fields. In contrast,
agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is sometimes referred to as
dryland farming or as rain fed farming. Environmental problems such depletion of underground aquifers, ground subsidence, buildup of toxic salts on soil surface in areas of high evaporation, overirrigation and the possibility of water pollution.
Image 10Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate of
autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (from Ecosystem)
Image 11Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (Olson et al. 2001, BioScience) (from Ecoregion)
Image 15Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking novel, Silent Spring, in 1962, bringing the study of environmental science to the forefront of society. (from Environmental science)
Image 16Climbing
ferns overtake
cypress trees in the Everglades. The ferns act as "fire ladders" that can destroy trees that would otherwise survive fires. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 17A map of the
Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. (from Ecoregion)
Image 25View of Earth, taken in 1972 by the
Apollo 17 crew. Approximately 71% of
Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) consists of
ocean (from Ecoregion)
Image 26Compartments established by C&SF projects that separated the historic Everglades into Water Conservation Areas and the Everglades Agricultural Area. One-fourth of the original Everglades is preserved in
Everglades National Park. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 27Few creatures make the
ice shelves of
Antarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (from Habitat)
Image 33A false color composite of the greater Boston area, created using remote sensing technology, reveals otherwise not visible characteristics about the land cover and the health of the surrounding ecosystems. (from Environmental science)
Image 34A map of the bioregions of Canada and the US. (from Ecoregion)
Image 35Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat)
Image 36Environmental science examines the effects of humans on nature, such as the
Glen Canyon Dam in the United States (from Environmental science)
Image 40Biodiversity of a coral reef. Corals adapt and modify their environment by forming
calcium carbonate skeletons. This provides growing conditions for future generations and forms a habitat for many other species. (from Environmental science)
Image 41Aerial view of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades bordered by sugarcane fields on the right (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 42A team of British researchers found a hole in the ozone layer forming over Antarctica, the discovery of which would later influence the Montreal Protocol in 1987. (from Environmental science)
Image 43Proportion of forest area by forest area density class and global ecological zone, 2015, from
Food and Agriculture Organization publication The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief (from Ecoregion)
Image 44Cattails indicate the presence of
phosphorus in the water. Cattails are an invasive species; they crowd out
sawgrass and grow too thick to allow nesting for birds and alligators. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 47Loch Lomond in
Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number of
introductions in the 1970s restructured its
food web. (from Ecosystem)
Image 48Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right) (from Environmental science)
Image 54The Paris Agreement (formerly the Kyoto Protocol) is adopted in 2016. Nearly every country in the United Nations has signed the treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (from Environmental science)
There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see
waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.
... that the concept of
reduce,
re-use, and
recycle as three equal options, but they are instead meant to be a hierarchy, in order of importance?
... that rivers have been classified by many criteria, including their
topography, their
biotic status and their relevance to white water
rafting and
canoeing activities?