Science Man and His Environment/What is Environment

Introduction and Definitions
Before we can start we must know what we mean by the environment.


 * Environment : Everything that affects a living organism


 * Environmental Science : interdisciplinary study of both the scientific and social aspects of the environment and human interactions with the environment.

Notice the use of the word "interdisciplinary". Environmental science includes chemistry, physics, biology, economics, politics, etc.

The definition of environmental science should be compared with that for ecology


 * Ecology : branch of biology studying relationship between living organisms and their environment.

Finally a definition we will use below. Note this is a working definition. A more precise definition will be given later (see the ecology section):


 * Ecosystem : A region within which organisms interact. For example: the Amazon, Khao Yai National Park.

System approach
The environment can be considered to be divided into systems.

Environmental science is then how these systems interact with each other.

Systems involved are:


 * Biosphere - all living organisms


 * Lithosphere - the Earth's solid surface (rock, soil, etc.)


 * Hydrosphere - Water in all its forms: liquid, solid (ice), vapor


 * Atmosphere - the air surrounding the Earth



Another way to look at the importance of the environment is shown in the diagram below:



Environmental Ethics
There are many ways to look at the environment. These worldviews or environmental ethics can be divided as follows:
 * Anthropocentric (Human-centered) - belief that animals, plants, and the Earth are for the use of man. Save the environment only when it gives value to mankind.
 * Biocentric (Life-centered) - all living organisms (including humans) have equal value.
 * Ecocentric (Ecosystem-centered)- all ecosystems (not only individual organisms) have value.
 * Gaia - A version of ecocentric which considers the whole Earth as an organism that naturally regulated itself.

Environmental Attitudes
Environmental attitudes, or approaches, are how we approach the issues of economic development and preserving nature.


 * Development - The development approach considers the most important factor to be economic development. This economic development is more important then preserving nature.
 * Preservation - The preservation approach is to preserve as much of the environment as possible. Nature has intrinsic value independent from human use.
 * Conservation - This attempts a balance between the development and preservation approaches. A good example of this is preservation of natural areas for use as hunting or fishing areas.