Natural environment

It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness—wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention.

Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat, for instance, when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna.

In ecology, a habitat is the type of natural environment in which a particular species of organism lives.

Earth science generally recognizes four spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere as correspondent to rocks, water, air, and life respectively.

The Gaia hypothesis, proposed in the 1960s by scientist James Lovelock, suggests that life on Earth functions as a single organism that defines and maintains environmental conditions necessary for its survival.

There are four major disciplines in earth sciences, namely geography, geology, geophysics and geodesy.

Geographers study the space and the temporal database distribution of phenomena, processes, and features as well as the interaction of humans and their environment.

These major disciplines use physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to build a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of Earth.

Ecosphere – there are many subsystems that make up the natural environment (the planetary ecosystem or "ecosphere") of the Earth.

These major disciplines use physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to build a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of Earth.

The next larger scale, cell biology, studies the structural and physiological properties of cells, including their internal behavior, interactions with other cells, and with their environment.

In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment.

In landscape architecture, the built environment is understood to mean a human-made landscape, as distinguished from the natural environment; for example, a city park is a built environment.

Fewer areas on the surface of the earth today exist free from human contact, although some genuine wilderness areas continue to exist without any forms of human intervention. Wilderness is generally defined as a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity.

Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity.

Biomes are terminologically similar to the concept of ecosystems, and are climatically and geographically defined areas of ecologically similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, often referred to as ecosystems.

A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in.

An ecosystem (also called as environment) is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical (abiotic) factors of the environment.

In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems.

Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor and suspensions of water droplets and ice crystals seen as clouds.

Thin clouds may look white or appear to have acquired the color of their environment or background.

Goals for the benefit of people and natural systems, commonly expressed by environmental scientists and environmentalists include:

An environmentalist is a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities".

Deserts, rain forests, plains, and other areas—including the most developed urban sites—all have distinct forms of wildlife.

In urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets and in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment.

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.

In general terms, environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources, and the protection (and restoration, when necessary) of the natural environment through changes in public policy and individual behaviour.

Wilderness areas and protected parks are considered important for the survival of certain species, ecological studies, conservation, solitude, and recreation.

The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: 1) human activities damage the environment, 2) there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and 3) scientific, empirically-based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out.

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms.

Some religions declare certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times, concern for the natural environment has provoked activists to protest against the exploitation of wildlife for human benefit or entertainment.

Living organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations.

In this way the natural environment of an organism "selects for" traits that confer a reproductive advantage, causing evolutionary change, as Darwin described.

The natural environment includes complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.

Wilderness is generally defined as a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity.

Humans have had a dramatic effect on the environment.

Healthy ecosystems and environments are necessary to the survival of humans and other organisms.

The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out.

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.

Various neo-Kantian philosophers, phenomenologists and human scientists further theorized how the analysis of the social world differs to that of the natural world due to the irreducibly complex aspects of human society, culture, and being.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms are continually engaged in a highly interrelated set of relationships with every other element constituting the environment in which they exist.

It is a broad field of study that includes the natural environment, built environments and social environments.

In the UK, PullApart combines both environmental and consumer packaging surveys, in a curbside packaging recycling classification system to minimise waste.