The
natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the
environment, is a term that comprises all living and non-living things that occur
naturally on Earth or some part of it (for example the natural environment in a country). This term includes a few key components:
- Complete landscape units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all plants, animals, rocks, etc. and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
- Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.
The natural environment is contrasted with the
built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are heavily influenced by man. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment (with an
indefinite article), if the human impact on it's kept under a certain limited level (similar to section 1 above). This level depends on the specific context, and changes in different areas and contexts. The term
wilderness, on the other hand, refers to areas without any human intervention whatsoever (or almost so).
Challenges
It is the common understanding of
natural environment that underlies environmentalism — a broad
political,
social, and
philosophical movement that advocates various actions and policies in the interest of protecting what nature remains in the natural environment, or restoring or expanding the role of nature in this environment. While true wilderness is increasingly rare,
wild nature (for example, unmanaged
forests, uncultivated
grasslands,
wildlife,
wildflowers) can be found in many locations previously inhabited by humans.
Goals commonly expressed by
environmentalists include reduction and clean up of man-made
pollution, with future goals of zero pollution; reducing societal consumption of
non-renewable fuels; development of alternative, green, low-carbon or
renewable energy sources;
conservation and
sustainable use of scarce resources such as
water, land, and air; protection of representative or unique or pristine
ecosystems; preservation and expansion of threatened or
endangered species or ecosystems from extinction; the establishment of
nature and biosphere reserves under various types of protection; and, most generally, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems upon which all human and other life on earth depends.
More recently, there has been a strong concern about
climate change such as
global warming caused by anthropogenic releases of greenhouse gases, most notably
carbon dioxide, and their interactions with humans and the natural environment. Efforts here have focused on the
mitigation of greenhouse gases that are causing climatic changes (for example through the
Climate Change Convention and the
Kyoto Protocol), and on
developing adaptative strategies to assist species, ecosystems, humans, regions and nations in adjusting to the
Effects of global warming.
A more profound challenge, however, is to identify the natural environmental dynamics in contrast to environmental changes not within natural variances. A common solution is to adapt a static view neglecting natural variances to exist. Methodologically this view could be defended when looking at processes which change slowly and short time series, while the problem arrives when fast processes turns essential in the object of the study.
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