Portal:Environment

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Introduction Land management has preserved the natural characteristics of Hopetoun Falls, Australia while allowing ample access for visitors. The natural environment or natural world encompasses all biotic and abiotic 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. The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components: Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks,plateaus, mountains, the atmosphere, and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature. Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from civilized human actions. 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. (Full article...) Land management has preserved the natural characteristics of Hopetoun Falls, Australia while allowing ample access for visitors. The natural environment or natural world encompasses all biotic and abiotic 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. The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components: Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks,plateaus, mountains, the atmosphere, and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature. Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from civilized human actions. 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. 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. (Full article...) Selected article - Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a 2010 non-fiction book by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. It identifies parallels between the global warming controversy and earlier controversies over tobacco smoking, acid rain, DDT, and the hole in the ozone layer. Oreskes and Conway write that in each case "keeping the controversy alive" by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached was the basic strategy of those opposing action. In particular, they show that Fred Seitz, Fred Singer, and a few other contrarian scientists joined forces with conservative think tanks and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on many contemporary issues. Some of the book's subjects have been critical of the book, but most reviewers received it favorably. It was made into a film, Merchants of Doubt, directed by Robert Kenner, released in 2014. (Full article...) List of selected articles Global warming Kyoto Protocol Sustainability Sustainable development Invasive species Renewable energy Urban heat island Food waste in the United Kingdom 100,000-year problem Abyssal plain Leopold Report Global dimming Climate variability and change Tropical cyclone Great Barrier Reef Exelon Pavilions Solar energy Three Gorges Dam Energy in Iceland High-level radioactive waste management Hanford Site Restoration of the Everglades Nissan Leaf Plug-in electric vehicle The World Without Us Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Ecosystem FernGully: The Last Rainforest Indirect land use change impacts of biofuels Agriculture Ecology Nature An Inconvenient Truth Green marketing Patterns in nature Anti-nuclear movement in Australia The Clean Tech Revolution African humid period Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand Climate system Congestion pricing Decline in amphibian populations Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef Requiem for a Species Renewable energy in Russia March for Science Portland Jevons paradox Global Climate Coalition Wind power Sea level rise National park 1966 New York City smog Conservation of slow lorises Draining and development of the Everglades The World Without Us ASEAN Heritage Parks Water pollution Environmental globalization Environmental degradation IUCN Red List Biodiversity action plan Environmental impact of pesticides Environmental impact of agriculture Environmental impact of meat production Environmental effects of irrigation Effects of climate change on agriculture Phosphorus cycle Deforestation Ecosystem service Environmental issues with coral reefs Agricultural pollution Regenerative agriculture United Nations Climate Change conference Human impact on the environment Illegal logging Deepwater Horizon oil spill Marine protected area Global waste trade Marine plastic pollution Environmental issues in the Niger Delta Rainforest Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest Old-growth forest United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Greenhouse gas Carbon sink Marine conservation Overfishing Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Millennium Seed Bank Partnership Environmental science Environmental policy Phytoremediation Environmental psychology Earth Day Environmental protection Environmental movement Green politics Environmentalism Clean Air Act (United States) Volkswagen emissions scandal Environmental impact assessment Greenhouse gas emissions Air pollution Coal in China Coal in India Solar power in India Exxon Valdez oil spill Environmental monitoring Air quality law School Strike for Climate Environmental issues in India Did you know (auto-generated) - ... that people with sensory processing disorders often require sensory friendly environments which are designed to accommodate their condition? ... that upon its completion, the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center had the largest sloped green roof in the United States? ... that critics objected to Dangers of the Mail in the 1930s for government support of lewdness and in the 2000s for creating a hostile work environment? ... that the destructible environment effects in The Incredible Hulk were so extensive that two additional artists were added during the game's development? ... that ancient permafrost can preserve viable microorganisms, some of which contain antibiotic-resistance genes that may be transferred to modern bacteria? ... that Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng's environmental activism inspired Barack Obama? ... that Enriqueta Medellín, a Mexican surgeon, has an ecological center and environmental prize named after her in the state of Aguascalientes? ... that Guajajara environmental activist and land defender Paulo Paulino Guajajara, who worked to stop the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, was killed by a group of illegal loggers? Selected image - Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the molecular level in scales smaller than 1 micrometre, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range. Nanopollution is the result of waste generated by nanotechnology and has implications on the wider environment. Current events News April 21: European Union to reduce carbon emissions by 55% of 1990 levels by 2030 November 27: Wikinews interviews Craig Farquharson, Liberal Democrat candidate for 2020 Groom by-election November 26: Wikinews interviews Sandra Jephcott, Sustainable Australia candidate for 2020 Groom by-election December 12: Greta Thunberg named 2019 Time Person of the Year Selected biography - Official portrait, 1994 Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1985 to 1993 and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1985. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in the 2000 presidential election, which he lost to George W. Bush. The son of politician Albert Gore Sr., Gore was an elected official for 24 years. He was a U.S. representative from Tennessee (1977–1985) and from 1985 to 1993 served as a U.S. senator from that state. He served as vice president during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001, defeating incumbents George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle in 1992, and Bob Dole and Jack Kemp in 1996. As of 2024, Gore's 1990 re-election remains the last time Democrats won a Senate election in Tennessee. (Full article...) List of selected biographies David Suzuki Rachel Carson John Muir Marjory Stoneman Douglas Ernst Haeckel Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford David Attenborough June Haimoff Jonathon Porritt Chico Mendes Arne Næss George Monbiot Gro Harlem Brundtland Paul R. Ehrlich Buckminster Fuller Donella Meadows Amory Lovins Elinor Ostrom Wangari Maathai James Bernard Harkin Lester R. Brown Gary Varner Clare Palmer Carol Browner Greta Thunberg Robert Sterling Yard Mauricio González-Gordon y Díez Bob Marshall (wilderness activist) Sumaira Abdulali Selected organization - Global Greens logo The Global Greens (GG) is an international network of political parties and movements which work to implement the Global Greens Charter. It consists of various national green political parties, partner networks, and other organizations associated with green politics. Formed in 2001 at the First Global Greens Congress, the network has grown to include 76 full member parties and 11 observers and associate parties as of May 2022, so a total of 87 members. It is governed by a 12-member steering committee called the Global Greens Coordination, and each member party falls under the umbrella of one of four affiliated regional green federations. The day-to-day operations of the Global Greens are managed by the Secretariat, led by Global Greens Convenors Bob Hale and Gloria Polanco since 2020. (Full article...) List of selected organizations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Greenpeace Brundtland Commission The Nature Conservancy International Union for Conservation of Nature World Wide Fund for Nature The Wildlife Trusts Green Party of Canada Sierra Club Friends of the Earth Rainforest Action Network Alliance in the Alps United Nations REDD Programme Rainforest Alliance European Centre for Nature Conservation Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council Global Footprint Network Global Carbon Project International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Agenda 21 Basel Action Network BirdLife International United States Environmental Protection Agency British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy Environmental Protection Agency (Sweden) Department of Environment (Iran) Scottish Environment Protection Agency Environment Protection Authority (Victoria) Northern Ireland Environment Agency New York City Department of Environmental Protection Kano State Environmental Planning and Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) Environment and Climate Change Canada Malta Environment and Planning Authority Oregon PHL/DEQ Laboratories Federal Office for the Environment California Air Resources Board ClimateWorks Foundation Awaaz Foundation Seacology World Meteorological Organization General images - The following are images from various environment-related articles on Wikipedia. Proportion of forest area by forest area density class and global ecological zone, 2015, from Food and Agriculture Organization publication The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief (from Ecoregion) Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right) (from Environmental science) Rich rainforest habitat in Dominica (from Habitat) This coral reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area provides habitat for numerous marine species. (from Habitat) Few creatures make the ice shelves of Antarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (from Habitat) The leaves of an Alnus nepalensis tree provide a microhabitat for species like the leaf beetle Aulacophora indica. (from Habitat) Twenty-five years after the devastating eruption at Mount St. Helens, United States, pioneer species have moved in. (from Habitat) Aerial view of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades bordered by sugarcane fields on the right (from Restoration of the Everglades) View of Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew. Approximately 71% of Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) consists of ocean (from Ecoregion) A team of British researchers found a hole in the ozone layer forming over Antarctica, the discovery of which would later influence the Montreal Protocol in 1987. (from Environmental science) Climbing ferns overtake cypress trees in the Everglades. The ferns act as "fire ladders" that can destroy trees that would otherwise survive fires. (from Restoration of the Everglades) The Ötztal Alps, a mountain range in the central Alps of Europe, are part of the Central Eastern Alps, and can both be termed as ecoregions. (from Ecoregion) The Paris Agreement (formerly the Kyoto Protocol) is adopted in 2016. Nearly every country in the United Nations has signed the treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (from Environmental science) Acropora with brown band disease, Lizard Island (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) Natural water drainage patterns prior to development in South Florida, circa 1900 (from Restoration of the Everglades) A protest against the Adani Carmichael mine, 2016 (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) The Earth's atmosphere (from Environmental science) Compartments established by C&SF projects that separated the historic Everglades into Water Conservation Areas and the Everglades Agricultural Area. One-fourth of the original Everglades is preserved in Everglades National Park. (from Restoration of the Everglades) Cattails indicate the presence of phosphorus in the water. Cattails are an invasive species; they crowd out sawgrass and grow too thick to allow nesting for birds and alligators. (from Restoration of the Everglades) A major coral bleaching event took place on this part of the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking novel, Silent Spring, in 1962, bringing the study of environmental science to the forefront of society. (from Environmental science) Loch Lomond in Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number of introductions in the 1970s restructured its food web. (from Ecosystem) Flora of Baja California desert, Cataviña region, Mexico (from Ecosystem) Catchments along the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat) Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (Olson et al. 2001, BioScience) (from Ecoregion) Current water drainage patterns in South Florida in 2005 (from Restoration of the Everglades) Biodiversity of a coral reef. Corals adapt and modify their environment by forming calcium carbonate skeletons. This provides growing conditions for future generations and forms a habitat for many other species. (from Environmental science) Environmental science examines the effects of humans on nature, such as the Glen Canyon Dam in the United States (from Environmental science) Trichodesmium bloom off the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) A map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. (from Ecoregion) Roseate spoonbills, along with other wading birds, have decreased by 90% since the 1930s and 1940s. (from Restoration of the Everglades) Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate of autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (from Ecosystem) The Shen Neng 1 aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 5 April 2010 (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) Structure 65B on the Kissimmee River is destroyed by the Corps of Engineers in 2000 to restore the natural flow of the river. (from Restoration of the Everglades) A false color composite of the greater Boston area, created using remote sensing technology, reveals otherwise not visible characteristics about the land cover and the health of the surrounding ecosystems. (from Environmental science) Crown-of-thorns starfish and eaten coral off the coast of Cooktown, Queensland (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) An Antarctic rock split apart to show endolithic lifeforms showing as a green layer a few millimeters thick (from Habitat) A freshwater lake in Gran Canaria, an island of the Canary Islands. Clear boundaries make lakes convenient to study using an ecosystem approach. (from Ecosystem) Ibex in an alpine habitat (from Habitat) A portion of the C-38 canal, finished in 1971, now backfilled to restore the Kissimmee River floodplain to a more natural state (from Restoration of the Everglades) Rainforest ecosystems are rich in biodiversity. This is the Gambia River in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. (from Ecosystem) Tropical Cyclone Larry over the Great Barrier Reef, 19 March 2006 (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) A conifer forest in the Swiss Alps (National Park). (from Ecoregion) Storage Silos on the Gladstone waterfront, an industrial area in the water catchment area (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) A map of the bioregions of Canada and the US. (from Ecoregion) Sequence of a decomposing pig carcass over time (from Ecosystem) The Amazon River in Brazil. (from Ecoregion) Sea temperature and bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef) The High Peaks Wilderness Area in the 6,000,000-acre (2,400,000 ha) Adirondack Park is an example of a diverse ecosystem. (from Ecosystem) WWF terrestrial ecoregions (from Ecoregion) Wetland habitat types in Borneo (from Habitat) Desert scene in Egypt (from Habitat) Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo) and other vegetation (from Ecosystem) Biological nitrogen cycling (from Ecosystem) Planned water recovery and storage implementation using CERP strategies (from Restoration of the Everglades) Selected quote - More did you know - London Smog ...that the word smog is a portmanteau of smoke and fog? ...that there was a Three Mile Island accident in United States where a partial meltdown of a nuclear powerplant took place in 1979? ...that the United Nations Environment Programme (or UNEP), which coordinates United Nations environmental activities, was founded in 1972? ... that each year in 22,500 cemeteries across the United States approximately 30 million board feet (70,000 m³) of hardwoods are buried as caskets? ... that the entire editorial board of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health resigned in protest in November 2017 over disputes involving the new editor-in-chief? Main topics Natural environment Acid rain Biodiversity Climate change Conservation Deforestation Desertification Ecosystem Environmental economics Environmental law Environmental policy Environmental science Environmentalism Environmental technology Global warming Greenhouse gas Green Politics Lists (Books, Dates, Issues) Ozone depletion Recycling Renewable energy Soil retrogression and degradation Sustainable development Waste management Related articles Things you can do This list is transcluded from the tasks list page. To edit the list, click here Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Article requests can be posted at: Natural sciences requests page, Create articles for red-links at Vertical kiln, Geoecology, Environmental behavior, Environmental perception, Environmental writing. Copyedit : Ecosystem management Expand : Environmentalist, Environment (biophysical), Environment minister, Environmental studies, Habitat, Micro-sustainability, Built environment, Southeast Asian haze Maintain : Environment pages needing attention, 2024 in the environment and environmental sciences NPOV : DDT (see Talk:DDT), Energy development, Hydraulic fracturing Photo : Environmental chemistry Stubs : Stub categories: Environment, Environmental organizations, International development, Renewable energy, Sustainability, Waste, Water supply, More... Update : Ecosystem management, Renewable energy transition, List of highly toxic gases Verify : Appropriate technology, Biosphere, Environmental economics, Environmental engineering, Environmental ethics, Environmental movement, Environmental science, Human overpopulation, Natural environment, Pollution, Sustainable agriculture Other : * Articles needing expert attention: International development. 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