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The natural environment comprises all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth. In its purest sense, it is thus an environment that is not the result of human activity or intervention. The natural environment may be contrasted to "the built environment." Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1944x2592, 2310 KB) Summary This photograph was created by Alan Liefting. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1944x2592, 2310 KB) Summary This photograph was created by Alan Liefting. ...
Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ...
Earth (often referred to as the Earth, or the earth), is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ...
Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ...
Terminology
For some, there is a difficulty with the term "natural environment" in that nearly all environments have been directly or indirectly influenced by humans at some point in time. In order to address this concern, some level of human influence is thus allowable without the status of any particular landscape ceasing to be "natural." The term's meaning, however, is usually dependent more on context than a set definition. Many natural environments are the product of the interaction between nature and humans. For this reason, the term ecosystem has been used to describe an environment that contains nature, and includes people. It follows then that environmental problems are human or social problems. Some also consider it dangerously misleading to regard "environment" as separate from "people." Photograph of a landscape A landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including physical elements such as landforms, living elements of flora and fauna, abstract elements such as lighting and weather conditions, and human elements, for instance human activity or the built environment. ...
In ecology, an ecosystem is a combination of all the living and non-living elements of an area. ...
// The Unobservable Although the term social is a crucial category in social science and often used in public discourse, its meaning is often vague, suggesting that it is a fuzzy concept. ...
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 wilderness is increasingly rare, wild nature (e.g., unmanaged forests, uncultivated grasslands, wildlife, wildflowers) can be found in many locations previously inhabited by humans. Environmentalism is the philosphical concern that humans may be damaging the natural environment, and that this damage may adversely impact people. ...
Politics is a process by which decisions are made within groups. ...
Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ...
Philosopher in Meditation (detail), by Rembrandt. ...
The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...
This article is about forests as a massing of trees. ...
An Inner Mongolia Grassland. ...
Various species of deer are commonly seen wildlife across the Americas and Eurasia. ...
Five wildflower species Penstemon strictus A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. ...
Goals commonly expressed by the 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. Environmentalism is the philosphical concern that humans may be damaging the natural environment, and that this damage may adversely impact people. ...
Water pollution Pollution is the release of chemical, physical, biological or radioactive contaminants to the environment. ...
Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon-containing natural resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. ...
Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water (hydropower), biological processes such as anaerobic digestion, and geothermal heat flow. ...
For the physical concepts, see conservation of energy and energy efficiency. ...
Sustainable use is the use of dickresources at a rate which will meet the needs of the present without impairing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. ...
Impact of a drop of water. ...
In ecology, an ecosystem is a combination of all the living and non-living elements of an area. ...
The endangered Sea Otter An endangered species is a population of organisms (usually a taxonomic species), which because it is either (a) few in number or (b) threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters, it is at risk of becoming extinct. ...
A nature reserve (natural reserve, nature preserve, natural preserve) is an area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. ...
More recently, there has been a strong concern about climatic changes caused by anthroprogenic releases of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, and their interactions with human uses and the natural environment. Efforts here have focused on the mitigition of greenhouse gases that are causing climatic changes (i.e., 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 these climatic changes. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years Climate change refers to the variation in the Earths global climate or regional climates over time. ...
Carbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas comprised of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ...
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. ...
Kyoto Protocol Opened for signature December 11, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan Entered into force February 16, 2005. ...
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