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 encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the 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, 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. In such areas where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion, the natural environment is greatly modified 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 seldom 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. 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. Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat, for instance, when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna. Read more... A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent. It can also be subdivided according to its attributes. Examples include the marine environment, the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment. The term environment can refer to a singular global environment in relation to humanity, or a local biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency. Read more... Selected article - Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960. The N Reactor is in the foreground, with the twin KE and KW Reactors in the immediate background. The historic B Reactor, the world's first plutonium production reactor, is visible in the distance. The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Project, Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works and Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in Hanford, south-central Washington, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first nuclear bomb, tested at the Trinity site, and in Fat Man, the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. Read more... 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 Merchants of Doubt Great Barrier Reef Exelon Pavilions Solar energy Three Gorges Dam Energy in Iceland High-level radioactive waste management 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 Seacology 1966 New York City smog Conservation of slow lorises Draining and development of the Everglades The World Without Us Did you know - ...that many countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol actually increased the greenhouse gas emissions, contrary to the treaty? And for that, the 15 January 2011, a representative of the country had to stick their head in a hole of sand in Cancun, Mexico? ...that the incandescent light bulb has an energy efficiency of only 5%, and the rest of the energy is used to generate heat rather than light? ... that methane has 25 times the impact of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas? ... that the average United States citizen consumes 119pg (10−12 g) of dioxin per day? ... that Summer Rayne Oakes has been called "the world's first eco-model" because she only models clothes made from organic or recycled materials? 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 December 12: Greta Thunberg named 2019 Time Person of the Year November 21: Researchers break down deaths due to power plant pollution in the United States November 18: Slippery business: Materials scientists invent new coating for self-cleaning, water-efficient toilets November 10: Northern Arapaho Tribe welcomes buffalo herd in Wyoming, United States Selected biography - Lester Brown in 2003. Lester Russel Brown (born March 28, 1934) is a United States environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and former president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. BBC Radio commentator Peter Day referred to him as "one of the great pioneer environmentalists." Brown is the author or co-author of over 50 books on global environmental issues and his works have been translated into more than forty languages. His most recent book is The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy (2015), in which he explains that the global economy is now undergoing a transition from fossil and nuclear energy to clean power from solar, wind, and other renewable sources. His previous book was Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity (2012). Read more... List of selected biographies David Suzuki Rachel Carson John Muir Al Gore 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 Gary Varner Clare Palmer Carol Browner Greta Thunberg Robert Sterling Yard Mauricio González-Gordon y Díez Bob Marshall (wilderness activist) Selected organization - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations that is dedicated to providing the world with objective, scientific information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of the risk of human-induced climate change, its natural, political, and economic impacts and risks, and possible response options. The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and was later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly. Membership is open to all members of the WMO and UN. The IPCC produces reports that contribute to the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the main international treaty on climate change. The objective of the UNFCCC is to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human-induced) interference with the climate system". The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report was a critical scientific input into the UNFCCC's Paris Agreement in 2015. Read more... List of selected organizations 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 General images The following are images from various environment-related articles on Wikipedia. Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (Olson et al. 2001, BioScience) This coral reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area provides rich habitats for marine life 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. A conifer forest in the Swiss Alps (National Park). Biomes of the world View of Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew. Approximately 72% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) consists of ocean. Ibex in alpine habitat 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. The Amazon River in Brazil. The Earth's atmosphere Environmental science examines the effects of humans on nature (Glen Canyon Dam in the U.S.) Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right) Biological nitrogen cycling WWF terrestrial ecoregions Rich rainforest habitat in Dominica Few creatures make the ice shelves of Antarctica their habitat 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. The High Peaks Wilderness Area in the 6,000,000-acre (2,400,000 ha) Adirondack Park is an example of a diverse ecosystem. 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. A map of North America's bioregions Desert scene in Egypt Flora of Baja California Desert, Cataviña region, Mexico Rainforest ecosystems are rich in biodiversity. This is the Gambia River in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. Wetland habitats in Borneo A freshwater lake in Gran Canaria, an island of the Canary Islands. Clear boundaries make lakes convenient to study using an ecosystem approach. Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo) and other vegetation. An Antarctic rock split apart to show endolithic lifeforms showing as a green layer a few millimeters thick Twenty five years after the devastating eruption at Mount St. Helens, United States, pioneer species have moved in. A map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right Selected quote - 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 Maintain : Environment pages needing attention 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, Natural environment, Pollution, Sustainable agriculture Other : * Articles needing expert attention: International development. 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