If you’re a world citizen in the 21st century, among the most frequent concerns you will encounter refers to the environment. Everybody is talking about the environment and what’s more, everybody is talking about the need to conserve and preserve the environment. If you flip upon the news stations or nature-based apps, you’re certain to hear the numerous grave concerns that are being expressed by a range of persons which range from politicians to environmentalists and down to lay folk about the issues that the environment is now facing the world over.
At a very generic sense, the environment refers to the milieu or circumstance of and the environment in which a specific item exists. As an example, we might say that the political environment in Iraq isn’t conducive to democracy and peace. However, once we refer to the environment as it affects Planet Earth, we’re referring to the condition of the natural world or of the ecosystem. The natural ecosystem means the sum total of these organisms which exist on the ground and the interconnectedness of the organisms (including humans) with the earth and its resources.
Therefore, the ecosystem refers to the link between the living (biotic) and the nonliving (abiotic) elements of the environment. Generally speaking, we distinguish between the built and the natural environment. The natural environment basically includes aspects of nature that exist and have they are being with no human intervention like atmosphere, the soil, water, the air, animals, birds, plants, On the other hand, the built environment contains human inventions such as cities, cities, businesses, vehicles and a lot of other man-made structures.
The issue in the environment now is due to the surplus and repressive interventions of people on the natural environment in the post-industrial era. The industrial age started in the 19th century and we saw rapid advances during the past century and a half. It witnessed enormous advances and strides made by people in the world of harnessing natural resources and progress in areas of science and technology. Naturally, this was accompanied by the exploitation of natural resources such as water, land, minerals, and even space.
The increase of human intervention in the natural environment was necessitated also from the rapid growth of the human population during the past two centuries. The international population exceeds over 6 billion now and this has far-reaching consequences for the effect on the environment. It isn’t quite possible to sustain such a massive population in the world with limited natural resources. Consequently, environmental pressures and ecosystem breakdowns have occurred where human beings have over exceeded the capacity of the ground to fulfill human requirements that have expanded unsustainably.
The environment comprises quite fragile ecosystems, many of which are now extinct or severely threatened. The earth has enough to meet human needs but definitely not to fulfill human greed! It’s quite true that we haven’t inherited this earth from our parents, but only borrowed it from our children. Till date, the earth is the only known planet in this huge galaxy which has an environment conducive to life. The environment is that we must sustain us and our progeny. It is high time that we paid attention to our covetous desires and listened closely to what the environment needs to sustain itself for the long run.