In politics and other non-technical contexts, nature or (the) (natural) environment often refers to that part of the natural world that people deem important or valuable, for any reason — economic, aesthetic, philosophical, hedonistic, sentimental, etc.. The word ecology is often used in this same sense.
It is the implicit value system that distinguishes the common sense of environment from its scientific meaning in ecology or biology. To a scientist, for example, a pipe dumping raw sewage into a river is the environment for any organisms that manage to thrive in it; whereas in the common sense that same pipe would be considered damage to the environment. The same distinction can be made between the common use of nature (above) and its use in science (a synonym of material world).
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
The Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (formerly the Department of the Environment and Water Resources) develops and implements national policy, programs and legislation to protect and conserve Australia's environment and heritage and to promote Australian arts and culture.
The fourth module of the plan to manage the environmental impacts of the Gunns pulp mill project has been approved by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
Generally, the environment or milieu of some object, action, or individual consists of the substances, circumstances, objects, or conditions by which the object or person is surrounded or in which the action occurs.
An environment may be thought of as a superset, of which the given system is a subset.
In biology, environment may be defined as the complex of climatic, biotic, social and edaphic factors that acts upon an organism and determines its form and survival.
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