Some environmental basics
What is the environment?
The environment is everything around us. This is all external conditions and factors, living and nonliving, which can affect any living organism or ecosystem.
What is environmental management?
Environmental management is the planning and implementation of practices aimed to manage the human impact upon the environment.
What is sustainability?
Sustainability is the ability of earth's various systems, including human economies and cultural systems, to survive and adopt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
What are the four principles of sustainability?
Through the study of how life on earth has survived and adapted to major changes, environmental scientists have determined that human societies need to:
- Become more reliant on renewable energy (specifically solar energy);
- Protect and preserve biodiversity;
- Control population growth; and
- Recycle and reuse nutrients.
How do we become more sustainable?
We can become more sustainable through pollution prevention; switching to renewable energy; making wise purchasing decisions; waste prevention; protecting habitat; environmental restoration; less resource waste; population stabilisation; and, protecting natural capital.
