What is environment?

• The term environment refers to anything that surrounds or has an impact on an organism over the course of its lifetime.
• The environment is everything around us.
• It includes all of the living and the non-living things with which we interact.
• It includes a complex web of relationships that connect us with one another and with the world we live in.
• We are dependent on the environment for air, water, food, shelter, energy, and everything else we need to stay alive and healthy.
• As a result, we are part of, and not apart from, the rest of nature.

What is Environmental Science?

• It is the science/study of how humans interact with the environment of living and non-living.
• It incorporates knowledge and concepts from the humanities, such as philosophy and ethics, as well as the natural sciences, including biology, chemistry, and geology.
• It also incorporates knowledge and concepts from the social sciences, including politics, economics, geography, and demography.

It is how nature works, how the environment affects us, how we affect the environment, and how to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably.

A key subfield of environmental science is Ecology, the biological science that studies how organisms, or living things, interact with their environment and with each other.

Concept of Sustainable Environment

• Ability of the earth’s various natural systems and human cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
• Core component of sustainability is natural capital—the natural resources and natural services that keep us and other forms of life alive and support our economies.
• Natural resources are materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans.
• Natural services are functions of nature, such as purification of air and water, which support life and human economies.