Welcome to EnvironmentPedia™ -- The Environment Encyclopedia

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To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of the state of the Environment.

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The Environment:
The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a terminology that comprises all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth or some region thereof. This term includes a few key components:
1. Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, rocks, atmosphere 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 strongly influenced by man. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment, if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level. 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 human intervention.

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 (e.g., unmanaged forests, uncultivated grasslands, wildlife, wildflowers) can be found in many locations previously inhabited by humans.

Goals commonly expressed by environmental scientists include:
1. Reduction and clean up of pollution, with future goals of zero pollution.
2. Cleanly converting nonrecyclable materials into energy through direct combustion or after conversion into secondary fuels.
3. Reducing societal consumption of non-renewable fuels.
4. Development of alternative, green, low-carbon or renewable energy sources.
5. Conservation and sustainable use of scarce resources such as water, land, and air;.
6. protection of representative or unique or pristine ecosystems.
7. Preservation of threatened and endangered species extinction.
8. 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.

Very large development projects - megaprojects - pose special challenges and risks to the natural environment. Major dams and power plants are cases in point. The challenge to the environment from such projects is growing because more and bigger megaprojects are being built, in developed and developing nations alike.

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 (e.g. 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.

Environmentalism:
The broad philosophy and social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the natural environment, both for its own sake as well as its importance to civilization. Environmentalists frequently speak of a planet or place faced with a plethora of grave and urgent threats; often associated with unbridled consumption, economic growth, materialism, insensitive development, and booming human numbers. Perhaps most problematic from an environmentalist perspective is the modern view that humanity's fate is divorced from that of the natural world, and that our responsibility to nature is - at best - limited to the satisfaction of shallow desires.

In various ways, environmentalists and environmental groups seek to give the natural world a stronger voice in human affairs and struggle to make governments, industry and other institutions see the importance of ecology and to treat nature with greater respect. Many environmentalists see common cause with indigenous communities and other marginalized groups struggling to protect their traditional way of life or freedom from blind commerce and other global incursions.

Though opinions vary, environmentalism may be seen as a spectrum; from the radical to the reformist (see also Dark Greens, Light Greens and Bright Greens below). Those at the former end tend to believe that humanity cannot achieve harmony with the natural world without radical adjustments to our worldview, including seeing ourselves as merely one species among many, rather than the pinnacle of creation with the right to wantonly destroy the environment to meet our ends. This group believes that nothing short of a complete overhaul of our political, economic and industrial systems is required to achieve a sustainable society. In this, environmentalism has its roots in a deeper radical, idealist, dissenting tradition in Western civilization.

In practice, however, most environmentalists tend to fall in on the reformist end of the spectrum, with countless campaigns to reform laws, elect sympathetic lawmakers and win over the public. Free-market environmentalists believe that environmental stewardship begins with a respect for private property, and that the natural tendency is to reject contamination of one's environment by expulsion of aggressors. Nonetheless, the drive of many reform environmentalists probably lies in heartfelt views quite sympathetic to those of the radicals, albeit more inclined to a kind of pragmatism.

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