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The Environment

What Is Environment?

individual development plan Graphics courtesy of OECD.orgOpens in new window

The environment includes living things and their physical and biological surroundings, and interactions between these. The word environment has different meaning in different jurisdictions, and is therefore widely recognized as a broad term with many interpretations and definitions.

In western Australia, for example, the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) WAOpens in new window 1986 defines environment as including water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)Opens in new window on the other hand, which is Australian-wide environmental legislation, defines environment as including:

  1. ecosystems and their constituent parts, including people and communities; and
  2. natural and physical resources; and
  3. the qualities and characteristics of locations, places and areas; and
  4. heritage values of places (i.e., places included in the Register of the National Estate kept under the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003Opens in new window; and
  5. the social, economic, and cultural aspects of a thing mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) or (d).

In Canada, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) 1992Opens in new window define the environment as the components of the Earth, and includes

  1. land, water, and air, including all layers of the atmosphere,
  2. all organic and inorganic matter and living organisms, and
  3. the interacting natural systems that include components referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b).

In general, therefore, the term

Environment may be used narrowly with reference to green issues concerned with nature such as pollution control, biodiversityOpens in new window, and climate change; or more broadly, including issues such as drinking water and sanitation provisions (often known as the brown agendaOpens in new window) (Nunan et al. 2002).

Components of the Environment

In order to study diseases caused by human involvement in the environment, it is best to define the earth’s environment and discuss how it works.

What exactly is the environment composed of? How does it function? Why is it so fragile and open to destruction by humankind’s lack of understanding? We wil try to answer these questions in the next literature.

Once the reader understands what a normal environment looks like, then s/he can understand what is happening to it. The best way to do this is to start with the BiosphereOpens in new window, also known as the EcosphereOpens in new window.

See also:
  1. Lamb P, Saul M, Winter-Nelson AE (1997) Meanings of environmental terms. J Environ Qual 1997(26):581 – 589.
  2. Zhang K, Wen Z (2008) Review and challenges of policies of environmental protection and sustainable development in China. J Environ Manag 88(4): 1249 – 1261.
  3. Yale (2006) Pilot 2006 environmental performance index. Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy. Yale University.
  4. Macintosh A, Hamilton C (2008) Human Ecology: Environmental protection and ecology. In: Jorgensen S, Fath B (eds) Encyclopedia of Ecology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 1342 – 1350.
  5. Magnani E (2011) Environmental protection inequality, and institutional change. J Ecol Econ Rev. Ann New York Acad Sci 1219:197 – 208.
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