The natural environment or natural world encompasses all
biotic and
abiotic 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:
Complete
ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation,
microorganisms,
soil,
rocks, plateaus, mountains, the
atmosphere and
natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature.
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
biotic and
abiotic 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:
Complete
ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation,
microorganisms,
soil,
rocks, plateaus, mountains, the
atmosphere and
natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature.
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,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:
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...)
Carbon sinks (green bars on the right) remove carbon from the atmosphere, whereas carbon sources (
greenhouse gas emissions) (grey bars on the left) add them. Since the 1850s, there are more carbon sources than sinks and therefore the
carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is rising.A carbon sink is a natural or artificial
carbon sequestration process that "removes a
greenhouse gas, an
aerosol or a precursor of a
greenhouse gas from the
atmosphere". These sinks form an important part of the natural
carbon cycle. An overarching term is carbon pool, which is all the places where carbon on
Earth can be, i.e. the
atmosphere,
oceans,
soil,
florae,
fossil fuel reservoirs and so forth. A carbon sink is a type of carbon pool that has the capability to take up more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
Globally, the two most important carbon sinks are
vegetation and the
ocean.
Soil is an important carbon storage medium. Much of the organic carbon retained in the soil of agricultural areas has been depleted due to
intensive farming. Blue carbon designates carbon that is fixed via certain
marine ecosystems. Coastal blue carbon includes
mangroves,
salt marshes and
seagrasses. These make up a majority of ocean plant life and store large quantities of carbon. Deep blue carbon is located in
international waters and includes carbon contained in "continental shelf waters, deep-sea waters and the sea floor beneath them". (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?
ZENN (Zero Emission, No Noise) is a 2-seated car that runs solely on battery. It has a range of up to 60 km and does not exceed 40 km/h. The fuel economy is few cents per kilometer and the
MSRP is $12,000.
Although the company is headquartered in Canada and the car manufactured in Canada, the vehicle was first introduced in United States because at the time of vehicle's design phrase, Canadian laws prevents this car to be driven on the roads. Since 2000, British Columbia has allowed ZENN cars on its roads.
Robert Sterling Yard (February 1, 1861 – May 17, 1945) was an American writer, journalist, and
wilderness activist. Born in
Haverstraw, New York, Yard graduated from
Princeton University and spent the first twenty years of his career in the editing and publishing business. In 1915, he was recruited by his friend
Stephen Mather to help publicize the need for an independent national park agency. Their numerous publications were part of a movement that resulted in legislative support for a
National Park Service (NPS) in 1916. Yard served as head of the National Parks Educational Committee for several years after its conception, but tension within the NPS led him to concentrate on non-government initiatives. He became executive secretary of the
National Parks Association in 1919.
Yard worked to promote the national parks as well as educate Americans about their use. Creating high standards based on aesthetic ideals for park selection, he also opposed commercialism and industrialization of what he called "America's masterpieces". These standards subsequently caused discord with his peers. After helping to establish a relationship between the NPA and the
United States Forest Service, Yard later became involved in the protection of wilderness areas. In 1935, he became one of the eight founding members of
The Wilderness Society and acted as its first president from 1937 until his death eight years later. Yard is now considered an important figure in the modern wilderness movement. (Full article...)
The Rainforest Alliance certification seal on a cup of coffee
The Rainforest Alliance is an international
non-governmental organization (NGO) with staff in more than 20 countries and operations in more than 70 countries. It was founded in 1987 by
Daniel Katz, an American environmental activist, who serves as the chair of the board of directors. The NGO states that its mission is "to create a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities." Its work includes the provision of an
environmental certification for sustainability in agriculture. In parallel to its certification program, the Rainforest Alliance develops and implements long-term conservation and community development programs in a number of critically important tropical landscapes where commodity production threatens ecosystem health and the well-being of rural communities. (Full article...)
Image 6Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat)
Image 7Aerial view of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades bordered by sugarcane fields on the right (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 14A 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 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 21Environmental science examines the effects of humans on nature, such as the
Glen Canyon Dam in the United States (from Environmental science)
Image 22Climbing
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 23A map of the
Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. (from Ecoregion)
Image 24A 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 25Biodiversity 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 28Global 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 33Few 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 34Cattails 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 35Proportion 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 46Compartments 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 50View 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 52Planned water recovery and storage implementation using CERP strategies (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 53Loch 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 55The 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)
...that many countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol actually increased the
greenhouse gasemissions, contrary to the treaty? And for that, the 15 January 2011, a representative of the country had to stick their head in a hole of
sand in
Cancun, Mexico?
... that rivers have been classified by many criteria, including their
topography, their
biotic status and their relevance to white water
rafting and
canoeing activities?
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