Natural environment

The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.^[1] The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:

"Natural force" redirects here. For the music album, see Natural Force.

In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hence beaver dams, and the works of mound-building termites, are thought of as natural.

People cannot find absolutely natural environments on Earth, and naturalness usually varies in a continuum, from 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. The massive environmental changes of humanity in the Anthropocene have fundamentally effected all natural environments: including from climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution from plastic and other chemicals in the air and water. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform.^[2] If, for instance, in an agricultural field, the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil, but the structure is quite different.

: The outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere extends from the exobase upward, mainly composed of hydrogen and helium.

Exosphere

: The top of the thermosphere is the bottom of the exosphere, called the exobase. Its height varies with solar activity and ranges from about 350–800 km (220–500 mi; 1,150,000–2,620,000 ft). The International Space Station orbits in this layer, between 320 and 380 km (200 and 240 mi). In other way, the thermosphere is Earth's second highest atmospheric layer, extending from approximately 260,000 feet at the mesopause to the thermopause at altitudes ranging from 1,600,000 to 3,300,000 feet.^[14]

Thermosphere

: The mesosphere extends from the stratopause to 80–85 km (50–53 mi; 262,000–279,000 ft). It is the layer where most meteors burn up upon entering the atmosphere.^[15]^[16]

Mesosphere

: The stratosphere extends from the tropopause to about 51 km (32 mi; 167,000 ft). The stratopause, which is the boundary between the stratosphere and mesosphere, typically is at 50 to 55 km (31 to 34 mi; 164,000 to 180,000 ft).

Stratosphere

: The troposphere begins at the surface and extends to between 7 km (23,000 ft) at the poles and 17 km (56,000 ft) at the equator, with some variation due to weather. The troposphere is mostly heated by transfer of energy from the surface, so on average the lowest part of the troposphere is warmest and temperature decreases with altitude. The tropopause is the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere.

Troposphere

The is the transformation of nitrogen and nitrogen-containing compounds in nature. It is a cycle which includes gaseous components.

nitrogen cycle

The , is the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water can change states among liquid, vapour, and ice at various places in the water cycle. Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go.

water cycle

The is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.

carbon cycle

The is the movement of oxygen within and between its three main reservoirs: the atmosphere, the biosphere, and the lithosphere. The main driving factor of the oxygen cycle is photosynthesis, which is responsible for the modern Earth's atmospheric composition and life.

oxygen cycle

The is the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. The atmosphere does not play a significant role in the movements of phosphorus, because phosphorus and phosphorus compounds are usually solids at the typical ranges of temperature and pressure found on Earth.

phosphorus cycle

Global biogeochemical cycles are critical to life, most notably those of water, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.^[36]

Elimination of and toxicants in air, water, soil, buildings, manufactured goods, and food.

pollution

Preservation of and protection of endangered species.

biodiversity

and sustainable use of resources such as water,^[42] land, air, energy, raw materials, and natural resources.

Conservation

Halting human-induced , which represents pollution, a threat to biodiversity, and a threat to human populations.

global warming

Shifting from to renewable energy in electricity, heating and cooling, and transportation, which addresses pollution, global warming, and sustainability. This may include public transportation and distributed generation, which have benefits for traffic congestion and electric reliability.

fossil fuels

Shifting from meat-intensive diets to largely in order to help mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change.^[43]

plant-based diets

Establishment of for recreational purposes and ecosystem preservation.

nature reserves

Sustainable and less polluting including waste reduction (or even zero waste), reuse, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge.

waste management

Reducing and clamping down on illegal fishing and logging.^[44]

profligate consumption

Slowing and stabilisation of .^[45]

human population growth

Reducing the import of second hand electronic appliances from developed countries to developing countries.^[47]

[46]

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. While true wilderness is increasingly rare, wild nature (e.g., unmanaged forests, uncultivated grasslands, wildlife, wildflowers) can be found in many locations previously inhabited by humans.

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

Criticism[edit]

In some cultures the term environment is meaningless because there is no separation between people and what they view as the natural world, or their surroundings.^[48] Specifically in the United States and Arabian countries many native cultures do not recognize the "environment", or see themselves as environmentalists.^[49]