What is environment?

 it 1 The Earth System and its Components

1.1 What is 'the environment?

Define the term 'environment'.

The term 'environment' is widely used and has a broad range of definitions, meanings and interpretations. What does the term 'environment' mean? In popular usage, for some people, the term 'environment' means, simply, 'nature': in other words, the natural landscape together with all of its non-human features, characteristics and processes. To those people, the environment is often closely related to notions of wilderness and of pristine landscapes that have not been influenced - or, at least, that have been imperceptibly influenced - by human activities. However, for other people, the term 'environment' includes human elements to some extent. Many people would regard agricultural and pastoral landscapes as being part of the environment, whilst others are yet more inclusive and regard all elements of the earth's surface - including urban areas - as constituting the environment. Thus, in popular usage, the notion of the 'environment' is associated with diverse images and is bound up with various assumptions and beliefs that are often unspoken - yet may be strongly held. All of these usages, however, have a central underlying assumption: that the 'environment' exists in some kind of relation to humans. Hence the environment is, variously, the 'backdrop' to the unfolding narrative of human history, the habitats and resources that humans exploit, the 'hinterland' that surrounds human settlements, or the 'wilderness' that humans have not yet domesticated or dominated.