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A Big Picture of What Environment Means: Another Introduction t

© Kenneth Friedman

When we think about the environment and environmental issues we each think about different things. Probably everyone correctly recognizes oil spills, air pollution and water pollution as being environmental issues. Other issues that come to mind are nuclear power, construction of dams, pesticides and all kinds of toxic chemicals and substances. Some people, particularly outside the United States, will point to deforestation, desertification, overfishing and overgrazing as being environmental issues. Are all of these environmental issues? Yes, and there are many more.

Our Earth is one giant ecosystem made up of an uncountable number of smaller ecosystems, most of which contain still smaller ecosystems, and so on.

To put it simply, think of the ecosystems as consisting of air, water, land and living things (biodiversity)--species of plants, animals and other organisms, such as bacteria, viruses and so on--as all being interrelated. The species, of course, live on land or in water and use the water, land and air, and each other in unique, sometimes inseparable ways. Scientists only understand part of the interrelationships.

Over the long term, ecosystems achieve some sort of equilibrium or balance. Often we don't understand or like that balance-- for example when there is a destructive hurricane, volcanic eruption or other natural events that we call disasters--but there isn't much we can do about it.

So, land, air, water, biodiversity, their interrelationships (including natural events) make up "the environment." And we're in it.

Now add in the effect that humans have on the environment: their numbers (population), wastes (industrial, commercial, agricultural, human), and misuse and mismanagement of natural resources (land, water, air, species, and their interrelationships). The result is disruption of ecosystems, small and large. Some recover, many do not.

Some of the disruptions include mismanagement of land by deforestation, desertification, overgrazing and development in various ways. Manmade deforestation, for example, might occur when timber companies overcut, when poor people cut wood for fuel, when man induces infestations through mismanagement and when people clear forests by fire or cutting for use as agricultural or grazing land. At the same time, natural events take their toll. Destruction of forests has many environmental impacts, many of which have their own environmental impacts. Nothing is simple.

Other disruptions of ecosystems are caused by emissions, spills and exposures of and to chemicals and other substances, often called wastes, that harm living things including people.

Population growth is one of our major disruptions. The more people there are, the more disruption there is of the environment. The more disruption there is, the more imbalance there is. The more imbalance there is, the more harm is done to biodiversity, including humans.

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