The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all living Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have self-sustaining biological processes ("alive," "living"), from those which do not —either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as "inanimate." and non-living things occurring naturally Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic on Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 3] and Terra.[note 4] or some region thereof.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:
- Complete ecological Ecology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and their interactions with their environment units that function as natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic systems without massive human The concept of personhood is the fundamental component of any selective concept of people. A distinction is maintained in philosophy and law between the notions "human being", or "man", and "person". The former refers to the species, while the latter refers to a rational agent (see, for example, John Locke's Essay intervention, including all vegetation Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers exclusively to, animals, microorganisms A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is microscopic (usually too small to be seen by the naked human eye). The study of microorganisms is called microbiology, a subject that began with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of microorganisms in 1675, using a microscope of his own design, soil Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes that include weathering and, rocks In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids, atmosphere An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low. Some planets consist mainly of various gases, but only their outer layer is their atmosphere (see gas giants) and natural phenomena A natural phenomenon is a non-artificial event in the physical sense, and therefore not produced by humans, although it may affect humans Common examples of natural phenomena include volcanic eruptions, weather, and decay. Most natural phenomena, such as rain, are relatively harmless so far as humans are concerned that occur within their boundaries.
- Universal natural resources Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity existent in various ecosystems and physical phenomena A phenomenon is any observable occurrence. In popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary event. In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, however commonplace it might be, even if it requires the use of instrumentation to observe it. For example, In physics, a phenomenon may be a feature of matter, energy, that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air The Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95, water Water is an ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is essential for all known forms of life, and climate Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these same elements over periods up to two weeks, as well as energy In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of work that can be performed by a force, an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law. Different forms of energy include kinetic, potential, thermal, gravitational, sound, light, elastic, and electromagnetic energy. The forms of energy are, radiation In physics, radiation describes any process in which energy emitted by one body travels through a medium or through space, ultimately to be absorbed by another body. Non-physicists often associate the word with ionizing radiation , but it can also refer to electromagnetic radiation (i.e., radio waves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet, electric charge Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields. The interaction between a moving charge and an electromagnetic field is the source of the electromagnetic force, which is one of the, and magnetism In physics, the term magnetism is used to describe how materials respond on the microscopic level to an applied magnetic field; to categorize the magnetic phase of a material. For example, the most well known form of magnetism is ferromagnetism such that some ferromagnetic materials produce their own persistent magnetic field. Some well-known, not originating from human activity.
The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment The phrase built environment refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter to neighborhoods to the large-scale civic surroundings, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment (with an indefinite article An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun, and may also specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference. The articles in the English language are the and a . An article is sometimes called a noun marker, although this is generally considered to be an archaic term), if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level (similar to section 1 above).
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He said, "We need to have economic growth but the pursuit of it should not be at the expense of sacrificing the integrity of the natural environment and ...
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Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:16:19 GM
[Throughout human history there have been] many deliberate acts to destroy or exploit the . natural environment. to achieve military goals. In the 5th century BC the retreating Scythians poisoned the water wells in an effort to slow the ...
